Family
by Angel362
Summary: Phil has a daughter! (Well you'll have to read it to find out what she's like!), Wing get a date, Canard comes back bringing friends and a witch and a demoness are shoved in there somewhere, hope you like, please review! - completed.
1. Chapter one: A birthday to remember

_**Family.**_

_**I don't own the mighty ducks yada yada, but I do own lizzie, her friends, phoenix and Millie, plus a few others but I won't list them all. The first time I did Lizzie's story It didn't work (thanks Lilli c) so I changed it, however one thing has remained the same and that is because this is a fictitious story, It is true I know little about how us government works, but hey, you think I know anything about English government? Anywho, don't complain to me that I'm being too fictional!**_

**Chapter 1:**

Wildwing walked around the pond in a daze he had had a dream the night before that depicted him with Lizzie, and not in their usual platonic way. The dream had started off with them at the park, they were laughing about something and fooling around, Wildwing had felt some weird fuzzy feeling in his chest as they got closer to each other and the laughing stopped, the couple looked into each others eyes and he leant down and kissed her. The dream didn't stop there and they ended up in bed with each other and he found that he hadn't disliked the dream in fact he had to admit to himself, and only to himself that he had enjoyed the dream a lot, but when he had woken up he began to think about what the others would think and then proceeded to convince himself that there was no way that Lizzie would ever like him in that way anyway. So, he decided to forget about it, well that was the idea anyway, but when it came to actually doing it he found it wasn't all that easy. The others had noticed their leaders strange behavior and were beginning to wonder what was wrong, he hadn't spoken about Canard for a long time but that didn't mean that he'd forgiven himself after only eighteen months.

"Hey big brother," Dive said happily linking his arm in Wing's, "why so glum bro?"

"Huh," Wildwing looked at his baby brother and two images flicked across his mind, one of Dive laughing at the idea of him and Lizzie, the other of Dive yelling at him that he was a freak and he no longer had a brother, the first thought was bad enough but for his brother to hate him was too much he needed him, "oh, nothing, I guess I'm just a little tired."

"Ooookay, wait," Dive narrowed his eyes and looked accusingly at his brother, "your never tired, your lying, you never lie unless you've got a really big secret to keep," by this time the others, all except Grin, had their full attention trained on the Flashblade brothers. Wildwing kept quiet but flushed a little and his right eyebrow raised a little, "ha! I knew it you are lying, so what's the big secret bro?"

"Who says I'm keeping a secret Dive?" Wildwing was finding it increasingly difficult to look his brother in the eye and proceeded to look else where.

"Giveaway number one, your blushing," Wing got even redder, "number two your right eyebrow always raises when your lying, number three, you can't look me in the eye, and last but not least giveaway number four, you a really, really, really bad liar."

"Even if I do have a secret, which I don't," Wing added quickly, as the others fought to hold back their laughter, "there would be a very good reason that I'm . . .I would be keeping it a secret, okay?" Dive gave a goofy grin knowing that he'd get the secret out of him or find it out somehow and nodded at his brother.

"Boobies!" Everyone jumped at Phil's shout, "Come up to my office would ya, I'd like to run something by all of you."

"Remind me again w – why I con – conec – linked his computer to Drake one." Stammered Tanya. The Mighty Ducks traipsed up to their manager's office to see what it was Phil wanted the to do now. 

Wildwing had no clue what Phil was talking about he was more interested in studying a picture of Lizzie in her early teens that sat on a shelf in Phil's office. She must have been a little over twelve and she looked so happy, she was surrounded by her friends that she'd told him about, Taisha, a black girl who was amazingly intelligent, so much so that she graduated when she was ten, her brother Jax who was a champion boxer and Caine, she'd never really told him about Caine, all he knew was that he was quiet and that she'd known him for as long as she could remember, and that they were like brother and sister, they looked like they were having fun.

From across the room the rest of the ducks were studying their leader, who was so obviously somewhere else, they looked towards where he was looking at and realized just what he was looking at, which gave them an idea.

* * *

A few weeks after his unusual dream it was Wildwing's birthday, the way everyone had been acting he had thought even his baby brother had forgotten but put it down to the fact that they'd been pretty busy with Draganus recently. He got back from a walk through the park quite late, it was December eighteenth and Earth was getting ready for Christmas, he had been out buying presents for the team and Lizzie who he hadn't seen recently as she'd been working on something for her course at college. However she was grouchy when working on these things and he found it best to leave her to it, _"at least she'll be finished soon, I hope she likes the present I got her."_ he thought nervously. He made his way to his room and placed the gift on the bed and jumped when the alarm rang. He raced to the ready room, he was about to take the shortcut through the rec. room when he met with Nosedive and Duke who had evil grins on their faces, they grabbed him and shoved him into the rec. room locking the door behind him, the lights were out and it was pitch black. He turned around thinking his brother and teammate had lost their minds when;

"Grin! Put me down what are you doing? I swear I will get you for this, hell has no fury like a woman scorned you know," Grin, who had been ignoring her loud shouts placed her gently on the ground and stepped back through the door that lead to the ready room and lock that one. "What is going on?!" 

"That's what I'd like to know." Wildwing was panicking, he was in a dark room alone with the woman he had dreamed about having sex with, he hadn't seen her since the dream and was hoping to avoid her until his feelings changed but it just doesn't seem to work like that.

"Wildwing is that you," he felt butterflies in his stomach and his heart got stuck in his throat, "do you have any ide. . . " she stopped as the lights were switched on and when the two could see again they noticed a table beautifully laid out with food on it and cards were scattered around it, there were also two candles in the middle and wine glasses. Both made their way towards the table and looked at it in total shock. 

"I swear I'm going to kill them for this." Wildwing joked.

"Not if I get them fist," added Lizzie, "oh well," she shrugged, "no sense in wasting good food." 

They sat down and ate the meal and talked, they laughed at one another's joke and when they had finished their meal they went and sat down on the couch, taking the bottle of wine that had been left to fill the wine glasses with them. Wing flicked through a few channels and found a film that looked promising and they started to watch. Wing looked a Liz and decided he had to ask;

"Do you skate?" Lizzie went bright red.

"I'm really bad at it, when I was four I kind of tripped and fell through the ice," Lizzie looked at her half empty wine glass, "I probably could but I guess I'm a little afraid to."

"You wanna try again," asked Wildwing, "I promise I won't let you fall."

"Well if you put it that way," Lizzie put the glass down slowly and looked at Wing, "how can a girl refuse?" 

They got up to leave and found that someone had conveniently unlocked the door to the ready room where the lift was, both laughed at the fact that the others had been listening but didn't care they went up to the changing room and Wing found a pair of skates that fitted Lizzie and they went to the rink. To say Lizzie was unsteady was an understatement, she seemed to spend more time flat on her face or on her rear end than actually skating, Wildwing chuckled as she fell over backwards a fifth time and skated over to her aide. He took her hands in his and slowly skated backward letting her lean her weight on him to get used to the ice again, she tripped again and landed on his strong chest, she went bright red. They were so close to each other that when Lizzie looked up at him his beak almost touched her lips, she felt him move closer and his beak brushed them, she leaned further into him as he wrapped his arm around her and they kissed, it wasn't a long kiss, or even a particularly passionate kiss, just a sweet tender kiss that neither wanted to end. The others watched their leader and Lizzie from the stands, Tanya sighed, Mallory thought it was weird and walked off Duke smiled, as did Grin and Nosedive had to try very hard not to ruin the moment for the new lovers. Later that night the two exchanged gifts, Lizzie had bought Wing a picture frame for an old photo of his family he'd managed to keep with him all through the camps. Wildwing surprised Lizzie when he gave her a small pendant with a small diamond in the middle that hung almost like a choker around her neck.

"You do get the whole birthday thing right? You know where people give you gifts, not the other way around?" She smiled at him wrapping her arms around his waist.

"What can I say I saw it and thought of you." he leaned down and kissed her again and not long after she said good night and left for her apartment across town.


	2. Chapter two: Here comes Millie!

_**Family.**_

**Chapter 2:**

A little girl was walking through the science facility, knowing full well that she should have stayed with either her Grandmother, her mother or even Phoenix, her surrogate aunt. But she was a curious child and all the machines fascinated her, she was only six and yet she was a quick learner and knew what some of the machine's did. Her mother had told her often that she was like her uncle whom she'd never met, Nosedive who had followed Draganus to stop him with his brother her other uncle, Wildwing. She marveled the stories that people would tell of their daring, heroic acts and yearned to meat them with all her soul. Her mother missed them greatly, especially with her father (Millie's grandfather) missing as well. She found her way to the room where a scientist named Kurt had been working on Puckworld's first Dimensional gateway, having used information gathered from various saurian outposts. The little girl's family were there because they longed to be reunited with their missing family members, even if it was just to bring their corpses home, Silver was there because she wouldn't believe that her lost love or her father were dead and Kurt Vanderflock worked endlessly on the gateway because his dear wife thought he was dead and he desperately wanted her to know that he was still there for her. She climbed up onto the seat in front of the console and looked at all the flashing lights. She had a higher IQ than most girls her age and an almost perfect picture memory, so as she sat at the controls she punched in the coordinates that she had seen Kurt do before, she wasn't planning to press the button that would start the machine up and open the experimental portal, as brave as she was she wouldn't want to go without her mother. However when Silver and her mother Phoenix burst into the room and panicked at finding the child where she was, she jumped and slipped pressing the button and a portal started to open. The blonde female with red streaks leapt for her daughter and held on to the child and the bolted down chair as her body lifted towards the hole in the air. Phoenix lost her grip but was grabbed by Silver, unfortunately her hand was hit hard by a dislodged pipe of some sort and they were sucked into the portal. Their screams were drowned out and after the portal closed the black screen typed in large green letters in the right hand, bottom corner 'ready:-'.

They fell through the air, stomach churning, Phoenix clung to her daughter so that she wouldn't be hit and injured by anything. Curiosity got the better of Silver though and she kept her eyes open the whole time, later she would thank whatever gods there may be as she caught a glimpse of a familiar tan feathered mallard, with every fiber in her body she reached out for him and grabbed his ankle pulling him into the worm hole and they fell onto a strange planet.

Sliver got up first and immediately rushed to Canard's side checking him over, he groaned and looked at her for quite some time before a glimmer of recognition was seen in his eyes and he wearily wrapped his arms around her neck, she returning the hug. Phoenix slowly rose, still clutching her child to her breast and looked around and gapped at a large sign. On it were what looked like a hockey team, two of which looked scarily similar to Wildwing and Nosedive. 

"Where are we Mommy?" 

"I don't know Millie," Phoenix kept staring at the billboard, "but I don't think we're alone here." Silver and Canard looked at her confused and she pointed to the sign they realized what she meant. 

"Looks like we need to find the Mighty ducks." Stated Canard weakly, he tried to get up but found his body refusing to do as it was told, Silver was quickly at his side placing one of his arms securely over her shoulder and she supported him so that he could walk.

They made their way into the city called Anaheim and managed to find their way to a mall that was supposed to be close to where the Ducks lived. As they walked it started to rain and Phoenix held her child closer to her body to keep her as dry as she could, Millie slowly drifted off to sleep, not long after that they were staring up at the Pond. Millie stirred and looked up at the huge building, she looked first at the gawping adults and then at the pond. She to had recognized the figures on the large poster and was pretty sure what it meant what it meant, she was finally going to meet her uncles for the fist time in her short life. She looked again at the adults and then ran into the pond, Phoenix hot on her heels. Millie ran a little faster so that her mother couldn't slow her down and bumped into some one walking very slowly in the same direction just as she rounded the corner.

"Hey!" Said a blonde duck, who turned around and was shocked to see a little mousey blonde and red haired duckling looking up at him in awe. Phoenix had stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the teenage boy Millie had bumped into and was too shocked and happy to move let alone say anything, she took in the sight of her youngest brother, who looked healthy and strong, not like she remembered when he was Millie's age. "What? . . . What are you doing here kid?" Just then Silver came up behind them still supporting Canard, Nosedive started to look around, "Where's your Mom. .m . . y?" He stopped as soon as he saw her standing there, he noticed the other two and it was great that they were here too but he was far more interested in his sister to worry about them! He stood there staring at her in a state of disbelief.

"Hello Nosedive," she said tenderly, Nosedive's eyes glistened and he rushed over to the sister he hadn't seen in almost ten years and hugged her. She smiled and returned the hug, "I missed you too little brother."

"Mommy?" Said a quiet voice, the two looked down to see Millie tugging at Phoenix's trouser leg looking a little put out, "I wanna see my uncles now please." Phoenix laughed and picked her up.

"You're seeing one now, Millie," she looked at her slightly confused brother, "Nosedive, I'd like you to meet Millie your niece, Millie this is your uncle Nosedive." Dive bent down a little to have a good look at his niece and smiled at her.

"Wow," she held out her hand as if remembering her manners, "pleased to meet you mister Nosedive sir."

"Just call me Dive. . . "

"Uh, guys," Sliver said as she shifted Canard's wait a little on her shoulder and he tried to take a little of his wait on his own, "I hate to break up this touching moment but Canard's heavy and I think he needs rest, good God did I actually say that, anyway, would you please give me a hand Dive?"

Dive took the party down to the lower level and led them to the infirmary where he helped Silver get Canard onto a bed. Tanya was already there and she was too shocked to see them to really say much so she set up the medicomm to make sure Canard was in no immediate danger and went to get Wildwing. In the mean time Silver sat by Canard whilst Phoenix and Millie went to explore, with Nosedive as tour guide.

Wildwing was in his room on his cell talking to Lizzie, "Are you sure you understood how to use the comm. unit?"

"For the millionth time yes, Wildwing," exclaimed an exasperated Lizzie on the other end.

"And you promise you'll use it if ever you're in trouble?"

"Yes."

"You'll keep it with you all the time, right?"

"Wildwing, I swear if you don't stop asking me all these stupid questions, I am going to turn this car around, drive back and kick your but!" Wildwing knew he was getting on her nerves, he had done for a long time but was enjoying every bit of it.

"Soooo, that's a yes then?"

"YES!" she yelled, he chuckled slightly and then heard a knock on the door.

"Someone wants me, I've gotta go Liz, see ya tomorrow, baby."

"Bye." She hung up and he walked over to his door.

"Tanya? What is it?"

"You won't b believe me if I t tell you your going to have to see it for y yourself." She grabbed his wrist and dragged him back to the infirmary, he didn't even have time to put his cell phone back down on his table. 

"Tanya what. . . " his grip loosened on his phone and it fell to the floor, "Canard? Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?" Wildwing merely stared at his best friend not believing his eyes, "Nice to see you too buddy."

"I'll leave you two boys to catch up," Silver left pulling Tanya out with her, outside she let go and turned towards the blonde, "so now I'm momentarily free, where's my dad."

"He's uh in his room, Silver, I'll show you." Tanya led her in the direction she had gone when she went to get Wing and stopped at a door on the left, "Here, um he doesn't always answer but you could try knocking."

"I wouldn't worry Tanya, I'm the daughter of the greatest thief on puckworld, I'll manage." Silver winked at her and Tanya left. Silver knocked and sure enough there was no answer so she took a pick out of her pocket and started on the lock. Moments later she opened the door and walked in. She had to hold back a cry of joy when she saw her father. His back was to her and he was reading a magazine.

"If, someone don't answer, then don't come in." He spun around with an angry look on his face which instantly melted when he saw who had broken in, "Silver?" he whispered, she smiled at him, "Silver!" He said more loudly and picked up his daughter in his arms spinning her around. 

* * * 

"And this is the kitchen, the infirmary's through that door there, so we've done a full circle." Millie walked into the rec. room and up to the big screen TV. Nosedive noticed the longing look in the little girls eyes, "you wanna watch TV Millie?" He looked over to his sister, "I bet you anything that Wing's already in the infirmary talking to Canard." Phoenix smiled and headed that way, normally the only other people she could leave Millie with were her mother, or Silver (anyone else Millie would instantly have driven insane by use of pranks or continually repeating herself), but she seemed to be getting on with Dive so she was quite happy to let him take over and give her a break. She walked into the infirmary and leant against the door frame as she watched the two friends laugh about something. Wildwing took his friends hand.

"I'm sorry I didn't save you Canard."

"Take that back, it was my choice and I don't doubt you've been a better leader than I could have been." Phoenix cleared her throat.

"Is this a private love affair or can anyone join in the fun?" Wildwing look around and his eyes went wide.

"But I thought, but you were, how, what?"

"My, that leaves out why and when!" 

"Very funny." Wildwing stood up and moved over to her, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, too tightly.

"Uh, Wildwing honey, Phoenix can't breath," he instantly loosened his grip but didn't let go, "I guess this means you missed me too huh?"

"You could say that." Typically Wildwing's comm. decided it would make itself known, he answered it, "hello?"

"Wildwing, um, my car's broken down, it's pouring with rain and I'm miles form the nearest bus stop, in case you were wondering why I'm calling, HELP."

"Where are you?"

"In the middle of nowhere, could you pick me up please, it's freezing and I don't have a handy dandy set of feathers to keep me warm."

"Sure," he looked up at Canard and Phoenix and and flushed a little, "I'll track your comm."

"And who was that?" Asked Canard, sporting an evil yet inquisitive grin.

"And why was she calling you?" Asked Phoenix, wearing a similar grin.

"Um, well, she's, uh" he sighed and decided it would be easier to tell them, "she's my girlfriend."


	3. Chapter three: Wildwing to the rescue!

_**Family.**_

**Chapter 3:**

Wildwing drove along the lonely road to find Lizzie, she'd been driving to a friends house that would have meant that she'd have to be out of town for at least a few days and of course her car had conveniently decided it would die on her, she was in the middle of nowhere, apparently only a third of the way to her friend Taisha's. He didn't like to think of her sitting alone in the car, their relationship had started to become more public thanks to her beloved dad, Phil, and since then they'd received all sorts of letters. A lot of those letters were congratulating them, but there were a few that he had gone as far as to report them to Cleghorn. That was why he'd given her a comm. unit, he was genuinely worried that some creep would hurt her, what was worst was that he was terrified that Draganus would use her to get to him.

Lizzie wrapped her coat around her a little tighter and shuddered, she was in the middle of a forest and it was lonely. Her cell wouldn't work where she was so she was glad that her comm. did. She turned the radio on but got static. When she looked back up towards where she had come from she could have sworn she saw lights shining through the trees but they disappeared before she could be sure. She found herself hoping it was Wildwing, but just in case she turned all her lights off including the hazards and sunk down the seat so that it looked like the car had been abandoned. She heard a car approach slowly and her heart beat quickened, Wing would have had his lights on. She jumped as she heard a door slam and the footsteps of someone approaching, someone slammed something against the boot of her car and she bit back a scream. They came closer, she turned her head so that she could see them coming, but kept still so that they wouldn't notice her until it was too late. Placing her hand on the door handle and leaning on it she waited. She screamed when the person on her side smashed the window on the door she was holding with a crow bar and she pushed the door open hard knocking the guy over. She jumped out and ran noticing that there were at least four or five other men crowded around her car. Some of them chased her while the others cheered them on, from the sounds of their voices they'd been drinking. Lizzie Stone ran as fast as she could but they were faster, one of them tackled her and she fell to the ground hard. The storm was raging now and she could barely hear herself scream as her attacker flipped her onto her back and started pulling at her belt, somehow she managed to get her legs underneath her and she shoved the guy off of her. Then she spun her legs around knocking another's out from under him. She got up and started to run again, she ran into the trees hoping it would slow them down enough for her to get away but just as she left the road one of her pursuers grabbed her coat she yelled and flung her fist into his face causing him to fall, the coat slipped off in his hands and she didn't bother to retrieve it. 

After a while she slowed down, the rain was falling harder now and she was getting colder, she had to find some sort of shelter where she could contact Wing on her comm. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard a loud explosion and the sound of a car revving it's engine. She turned and looked back the way she came to see if they were following her, walking backwards at the same time. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was satisfied that they weren't. She screamed as her foot connected with nothing and she felt herself fall through the air, next there was nothingness.

* * *

Wildwing rounded a corner in a lonely forest following Lizzie's signal, looking at his comm. every few minutes to make sure he was going the right way. He took his eyes off the road when he realized that her signal was no longer on the road, when he looked up he pulled hard on the brakes and he felt himself starting to panic. In front of him was what looked like the remains of Lizzie's car, someone had either blown it up or torched it. He looked around knowing that the rain would prevent his eyes seeing very far so he activated the mask to see if it could pick up any nearby heat signals. Nothing. 

"LIZZIE?!" He yelled into the night hoping she'd hear him, but not really believing she would over the storm. He flicked open his comm. and patched it through to Drake one, "Tanya, Dive, Duke anybody, pick up!" His voice showed his panic, but he didn't care, he just wanted to find Lizzie.

"Wildwing?" Phoenix answered with Tanya by her side, "what's wrong little brother?"

"I need the others to bring the airowing to my position, now!"

"Why w - what's wrong?" 

"I think Lizzie may be hurt, I just found her car torched but I can't find her, just please bring the airowing, I can't get her back on a duck cycle if she's hurt!" With that he cut off and punched a button that would home in on Lizzie's comm. He got off the bike and followed the signal into the trees, he found her coat a little way in and about five minutes later he started yelling for her again, her signal was close but he couldn't work out where she was.

Lizzie was vaguely aware that someone was calling her name, but it sounded so distant that she thought she was dreaming and that she was in her room, that none of this had happened. Of course when she came to a little more and felt an agonizing pain in her leg and head she soon knew differently. She tried to get up but any wait she put on her right leg was too painful, so she sat back down. She heard the voice again and she could have sworn it was Wildwing.

"Wing?" She called, causing a big headache, _'great how do I get his attention?'_ she thought, _'of course the comm.!' _"Wildwing?"

"Lizzie? Where are you?" He looked at the image on the screen and tried to calm himself, she looked awful but he didn't want to worry her. "Baby?"

"I fell, . . . um," she looked around and took in her surroundings, she was by a river, which from all the rain was raging, above her was the steep hill she had fallen down, at the top was a large rock on one side, "look for a big rock and then look down, you'll find me."

"Okay."

"Oh and Wing, don't take too long, I don't feel so good."

"I'll be right there baby, I promise." He found the rock quite quickly and made his way down the side of the hill and raced to her side. "Lizzie,you okay?"

"Ask a stupid question, sorry," she added quickly at his hurt look, "I think I've done something to my ankle, I can't stand on it, my head hurts and I'm freezing."

"The others are bringing the airowing, but I'd better get you to some shelter," he felt her forehead, "god you're burning up!" He took off the water proof coat he had on and wrapped it around her shoulders and gently picked her up. Heading back in the general direction of his bike, he decided to get her to some shelter near there, so there would be a clearing for the others to pick them up, but it was easier said than done.

"Wildwing?!" The couple jumped as his comm. went off, "Yo Wing come in!"

"Duke? Where are you?" Wildwing yelled over the noise of the storm, gently placing Lizzie back down so he could talk.

"Near enough above you, but the storms too bad to try and maneuver in between the trees to land near you," Wildwing looked worried at Duke's reply, "but there's a clearing up ahead, if you head east you'll get there in no time."

"Which way's east I can barely see three foot in front of me, let alone which direction I should be heading!"

"Left, bro, you okay?"

"Yeah baby brother, I'm fine."

"Glad to hear someone is," came Lizzie's voice which was sounding rather hoarse. Wildwing picked her up and headed to his left, Dive and Duke keeping him on the right track, they landed in the clearing and turned the search lights on so that Wing could follow them. Nosedive and Duke rushed out to meet them and got them inside. Nosedive went to get them some blankets and some hot drinks whilst Duke took off again and headed for Anaheim. Wildwing placed Lizzie on a chair and gratefully took the blankets wrapping one around her and the other around himself.

"Oh that is soo good," said Lizzie as she sipped at the hot chocolate Dive had given her, "Dive I don't care how badly you cook you make one mean hot chocolate."

"You can say that again," Wing took another sip and smiled at Dive's slight blush, "Dive our uh guest weren't too upset about me rushing off like that, were they?"

"No way man, Duke and me explained everything for ya, they know all the details!" Dive smiled at his brother and he received a groan.

"Guests? And what details are you talking about blondie?" 

"You remember Canard, the guy who was lost in limbo?" Dive asked, she nodded, "well he's back thanks to our sister, niece and Duke's daughter."

"Your sister," she looked at Wing, "I thought she was dead?"

"So did we," he replied, "but I guess we were wrong." Wildwing moved closer to his girlfriend and placed an arm around her shoulders and she snuggled in to him, it wasn't long before she was fast asleep and Wildwing wasn't far off himself.


	4. Chapter four: She's in trouble again!

_**Family 4.**_

**Chapter 4:**

Wildwing carried the still sleeping Lizzie into the infirmary and placed her down on one of the beds, he stole a quick glance at his best friend who was also sound asleep. Tanya set the medicomm on scan and concluded that all Lizzie had was a sprain, a bump to the head and a slight fever that was probably caused by getting so wet. She ushered Wildwing out of the room and called Phoenix in to help her change Lizzie into some drier clothes.

The next morning Wildwing walked into the infirmary and sat by her bed, stroking her hair and thought. _"what the hell happened last night? And why was her car trashed?"_

"Not bad," said a groggy voice from the other bed, Wing looked up at his friend, "she may not be from our world but I can see exactly why you hooked up with her, she is fit!"

"Hey, that's not the only reason." Wing replied indignantly.

"Uh huh, yeah right," Canard rolled onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow, "so she good in bed?"

"What?!"

"I said. . . "

"I know what you said and I wouldn't know." Wildwing began to blush, which made Canard want to tease him even more, but before he could;

"Will you two shut up, I have the worst headache ever and your discussing my sex life," Lizzie sat up and stretched, "oh and Canard, he'll tell you soon enough." That made Wildwing blush even more, so he decided it best to change the subject.

"You feeling okay baby?" Wildwing leant down and kissed her cheek causing Canard to roll his eyes, "What happened last night?"

"Would you believe that I accidentally blew up my car and ran into the woods for shelter?" Wildwing crossed his arms and gave the look that Canard thought was reserved for Dive alone, "Okay fine, but you'd better promise that your not going to freak out on me?" He continued to glare at her so she took a deep breath and said as quickly as possible, "Well you see I was in the woods and I saw these lights so I turned off my lights and then one of the guys from the car smashed my window so I hit him with the door, then I ran into the woods and fell down a hill and then you came and the rest you know," it was blatantly obvious that she wasn't telling him something so Wing continued to glare, "that's all that happened honest!" He glared some more, "Oh all right one guy grabbed me and tried to have some fun, but I stopped him so that's okay," Wing looked horrified, so she looked over to Canard for support and he wore the same expression.

"He tried to rape you?!" Wing said quietly not really digesting this information very well.

"Well, yes, but he didn't so every thing's okay!"

"Your okay?" Asked Canard, "your okay with someone attempting to rape you?"

"Look the jerk didn't get very far and it's not like I was stupid enough to face all five of them."

"There were five of them?!" Wildwing yelled this time, "that's it I'm not letting you out of my sight!"

"Oh no," Lizzie crossed her arms now, "I will not be babied by you or anyone else, I refuse to let this change my life in any way, and if you even think of trying to protect me every single minute of the day I swear I'll kick your butt," she brushed a strand of un-gelled hair out of his eyes and looked into them, "Am I making my self perfectly clear honey?"

"Sheesh," Canard chuckled, "if you think your going to stop that guy from protecting you you've got another thing coming."

* * *

It was a few days before either Canard or Lizzie were let out of the infirmary, which wasn't too painful as it gave Wildwing and Dive a chance to catch up with their sister. It was a Saturday, most of the team were still inside as it was winter, plus they had no intention of making the same mistake as the year before, namely getting mixed up with any Christmas shoppers (there was two weeks to go before old st. Nick came down their non existent chimney). Canard was at the breakfast table in a pair of sweat pants and a shirt, his arm around Silver's waist. Wildwing couldn't see Lizzie though, Canard noticed this and;

"In there," he pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the ready room containing Drake one, "She's thrashing your brother at video games." Wildwing raised an eyebrow and carried on towards the door. When he entered he found two chairs pulled up close to the screen, Nosedive was on one, a controller in his hands looking intently at the game, and Lizzie was in the other, her legs were crossed and she was leaning forward with a look of complete concentration on her face, her mouth with a slight smile in the corners. Suddenly Dives character flew out of the screen and the screen showed 'Game Over'.

"Ha!" Laughed Lizzie pointing at her opponent, "I win again, maybe next time you won't tell me girls can't play video games, Blondie!"

"Quit calling me that, besides, how'd you get so good anyway?" Dive gave her a questioning look and Lizzie just shrugged.

"Remember that friend I was supposed to be visiting the other day, Taisha?"

"Yeah?"

"Well she's a complete genius at everything, kinda like Tanya, she graduated at school at about twelve, which is so depressing," she paused and smiled at his bewildered look, he hadn't thought humans could be that smart, not like Tanya anyway, "Well anyway, she used to thrash every body at video games cause she could work it all out in an instant, so I thought I'd get my own back."

"Did you?" Wildwing asked causing them to jump, he walked up to the pair and leant down kissing Lizzie on the cheek whispering in her ear, "are you sure you should be up yet you still look a little pale?"

"I'm fine Wing, and no I didn't but I have three different consoles at home that I practice on, sad I know but I've been trying for years, who knows maybe I'll beat her one day."

* * *

Wildwing dropped Lizzie off at her apartment, and walked away a little reluctantly, their relationship grew more and more serious by the day, it also became more and more public, it wouldn't be long before Draganus found out. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves when he thought of what he might do to her if he caught her, what would he do to get back at him. Draganus knew that Wildwing treasured his family, he only had to look at the relationship between the two brothers to guess that. If he took Lizzie would he just kill her or would he do something worse. He kept going heading back to the pond pondering this and finally decided that he would ask her to move into the pond with him and the others, but fist he'd have to check that the rest of the team would be okay with yet another person living at the already crowded pond.

Lizzie sat down and opened the book she had neglected the last few weeks and started to read, her ankle was totally healed by now and she could move around with no problem, it had only been a bad sprain. It wasn't long before she felt herself drifting off to sleep, the book falling to the floor. 

"Now siege, whilst she's asleep!" Said Wraith quietly. Siege smashed through the window only to wake Lizzie up who fled as soon as she saw who had smashed her window. Unfortunately the chameleon was waiting for her in one of his many morphs and over powered her, she tried to scream for help but Siege hit her hard across the back of the head with his laser gun and she fell into blackness.


	5. Chapter five: Two more residents

**_Family_**.

**Chapter 5:**

Lizzie groaned as she regained consciousness. She opened her eyes and looked around, she was in a dark room, she was bound to a chain that hung from the ceiling and there was a doorway in front of her. She guessed that the place must have been the Raptor and the entire room was metal, plus when she looked closer at the doorway she noticed that there was a blue tint where a door should have been. A large figure appeared at the doorway, she heard a small beep and the blue tint disappeared. She strained her eyes to see who it was and held bak a gasp when she realized who the large red lizard must be, but she never did like letting creeps like him have the satisfaction of knowing she was scared so she covered up her fear with her anger and hoped it wouldn't get her killed.

"Draganus I presume?" She spat.

"And you must be the young human that has managed to capture the heart of Wildwing," he smiled at her and cupped her chin pulling her head up so that she had to look at him, she glared back at him, "I commend you he's not an easy catch, although he will be now I have you. . . him, and the rest of the team." He let go and left, saying something to someone she couldn't see but a faint shadow suggested that Siege was outside waiting for his lord. 

Once she was sure the two saurians had gone she let out a huge sigh of relief and made a mental note to get thicker windows.

"Why are you here lady," said a small voice, "Draganus usually has ducks here but you're not a duck, what are you?" The owner of the voice came a little closer and Lizzie gasped, she was a saurian but very young, unlike her male counter parts she had bat like wings that were draped around her shoulders like a cloak, she was about the same height as an eight year old girl, but she was deathly thin and she had bruises all over her. Most Lizzie could take in, but the child's eyes caught her attention, Lizzie knew that saurian children theoretically would be a lot bigger, so that being the case the girl couldn't have been much older than six if that, but in her eyes Lizzie saw pain, loss and a dullness that should never be in a child's eye.

"I'm a human, I'm a friend of some ducks," she hesitated before asking her question fearing the answer a little, "who are you little girl?"

"My name's Nina, I'm a slave here."

"Why?"

"Draganus is my daddy, and my mommy ran away form him taking me with her, as punishment he killed her and made me a slave." The little girl looked like she wanted to cry but couldn't, almost as if she didn't know how to anymore. Lizzie got an idea and hoped that Nina had enough of her childhood left to want to help her.

"Nina, do you know how to untie me?"

"Uh huh," she walked up to a switch on the wall and the shackles opened, "lady?" Lizzie walked up to her and knelt down so that their eyes were level, "Are you going to go away and leave me now?" Again Nina looked like she wanted to cry.

"Not if you don't want me to," Lizzie place a hand on the small saurian's shoulder, telling herself not to pull her hand away from the horrible feeling of her emaciated body, "you could come with me if you'd like, but I'll need help getting out of here, think you can show me the way?" 

"Sure!" Her little face lit up and she grabbed her new friend's hand pulling her through the door and heading in the opposite direction to the way her 'dad' had taken. They ran down many corridors taking sudden turns, Nina seemed to know the raptor well. A couple of times they would come across hunter drones and Nina would pull her into a hiding place until they had gone or take her a different route to avoid them. Eventually they came to a small vent and Nina pulled off the grate, with a little help from Lizzie and they climbed in. Five minutes later Lizzie was helping Nina pull another grate off the side of the ship and they climbed outside. Once out in the light Lizzie was able to get a good look at her new charge, she had white hair that was pulled into pigtails either side of her head, her face was almost human like, apart from horns that grew from her forehead forming a sort of crown there. Her skin color was a beautiful blue-grey color. Lizzie pulled herself away and looked around, they were in the building site for the new mega mall, just outside of town, it was quite a way but Lizzie knew how to get to the pond from there. 

"Well, you don't look like you can run to far," said Lizzie who turned around and pointed to her back, "hop on I'll give you a piggy back ride." Nina jumped on and Lizzie started off at a fast jog. When they were far enough away she slowed and Nina got off and walked herself. As they entered the main city, Lizzie started looking around for a phone to call Wing and found one after about five minutes. She tried the pond but no one answered, then she tried a number he'd given her that would take her straight through to his comm.

"Wing here, who's this?"

"Wildwing it's Lizzie."

"Lizzie, where are you you're apartment's a pile of ash, I though you were in it, I – I thought you were – were," the tone in his voice alone showed the worry he felt.

"I'm near the edge of town, close to that new mall that's being built," silence, he was obviously expecting her to tell him what had happened, "I had a little visit form your friends the saurians . . . "

"What?!"

"Let me finish will you! They took me to their ship and told me they were going to use me to capture you guys, anyway, there was this little saurian slave girl, she set me free and we escaped, could you come pick us up before Draganus finds us again, please."

"We're on our way!" He shut down his comm., "Guys! I know where Lizzie is, but she's in trouble, we have to go pick her up!" The ducks raced to the migrator and sped towards where Lizzie said she had been. Wildwing pulled the vehicle to a halt and the got out to look for her and the child she'd mentioned. 

"Ahh" yelled Dive as he dodged a shot, "Saurians," he yelled as he took out his blaster and opened fire at the chameleon. Duke made his way away form the fight and onto one of the close buildings so that he could come around form behind.

"Find the girl and that brat, or I'll have your hide chameleon!" Duke chuckled, Lizzie didn't seem to be as helpless as he thought she was. He started to look around and something caught his eye, someone was just closing a manhole cover form the underside. He raced over making sure the chameleon couldn't see him and slipped into the sewers. He made his way through the sewers following some faint footprints on the damp floor, as he turned a corner he leapt out of the way narrowly missing a piece of wood. 

"Oh! Duke!" Lizzie turned a bright shade of red and put her hand over her mouth, "I thought you were a saurian!"

"Yeah well next time I'll remember ta shower," he looked past Lizzie to see the little saurian girl Wing had told them about, "hey, you must be, that little girl right?" he held out his hand to the tiny saurian but she shied away and hid behind Lizzie, "Come on kid I won't hurt ya, I promise, I'm a nice guy, really."

"That's a matter of opinion Duke," Lizzie and Duke looked behind to see Mallory heading towards them, "is this the saurian brat?"

"Mallory!" Nina clung onto Lizzie for dear life and tried to hide herself even more, "Don't be so mean she's just a little girl! It's okay Nina."

"She's right Mallory, we can't judge her for what her elders have done," said Wildwing behind her, "beside it doesn't look like they've been taking care of her properly, she shouldn't be a slave." Mallory huffed and stomped back to the migrator calling Lizzie everything under the sun.

The ducks took Nina back to the pond and although they wanted to ask her a few questions as to where she came from she fell asleep on Lizzie's lap before they even got there. Wildwing couldn't help but to smile as he glanced back at his girlfriend and the little girl on her lap. Whether she knew she was doing it or not Lizzie was stroking Nina's hair the way his mother used to stroke his when he was small. He pulled up in the hanger, went over to the two and gently lifted the sleeping child, she stirred ever so slightly but stayed asleep. He took her to his room, he could always sleep on the couch, and placed her in his bed, he pulled the covers around her and walked out turning the lights off as he went. He made his way to the infirmary where he was sure the others or at least Tanya would have forced Lizzie to go so that Tanya could be sure she was all right. Nina would probably get a similar check up in the morning but for now she could sleep in a quiet room where she wouldn't be disturbed.

"Being a model patient I see?" he said as he walked into the infirmary to find Lizzie with her back to a wall looking nervously at a piece of cloth in Tanya's hand, Canard and Silver were laughing in a corner, everyone else seemed to be elsewhere.

"I need to clean a wound and you're girlfriend is being uncooperative," Tanya, sighed and gave up, "she's got a nasty cut on her shoulder at the base of her neck and she refuses to let me clean it."

"That stuff hurts!"

"Baby!" Chuckled Wildwing, which made Canard and Silver laugh all the harder.

"Hey! I'm not a baby, not in the way you mean anyway!" she added quietly, "I would just rather do it myself thank you!" Tanya just rolled her eyes and walked out followed by Canard and Silver who could barely stand. Wildwing quietly walked over to where the antiseptic sat and placed some on a new piece of cloth. He took Lizzie's hand a sat her down, she resisted a little at first but had to admit she was a little tired so allowed him to gently lay her hair to the side and sit down close to her so that he could get a better look, Tanya was right it was a nasty cut, it was obviously where they'd hit her when they had knocked her out, the area was swollen and was almost black from bruising and in the center there was a long gash that wasn't amazingly deep but it was bleeding a little and needed to be bandaged. He leant a little closer and dabbed the cloth on the wound and she flinched a little.

"Sorry," he kept one hand on her shoulder nearest him he rubbed it a little to try and take her mind off the pain, she closed her eyes and leant into him making herself comfortable as he worked. As he was doing this Phoenix came to find him, but stopped short of the door when she saw the touching scene, she heard how Lizzie had refused point blank to let Tanya do it but here she was letting Wildwing do everything and not even making a sound. She leant in the doorway for a while and watched her brother lovingly clean Lizzie's wound and then bandage it, so carefully you'd think she were a porcelain doll that would break if you were too ruff with her. She decided that she would talk to Wildwing later, what she had to say could wait, so she left. "Lizzie, honey, there's something I wanna ask you."

"Uh huh?" she asked sleepily, snuggling into his strong body a little more.

"I think you need to move in with us," Lizzie looked up at him, "I, I don't want you to get hurt because of me, you'll be safer in the pond from any of our enemies and I'd feel a whole lot better, what do you say?"

"Have you run this by the others yet?"

"Well I haven't had the chance, but seeing as your apartment's rubble you'll need somewhere to live and you get on with most of us right? So do you want to?"

"I'd love to," she sat up so she could kiss his beak, "but ask the others first, okay?"

"Sure." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, soon they made themselves a little more comfortable on the bed and spent the night in each other's arms.


	6. Chapter Six: A Christmas wish

_**Family.**_

**Chapter six: (Warning for sappiness, sorry I just couldn't resist it!)**

It was Christmas morning, Millie had been up for hours along with a slightly reluctant Nina and was testing all of the presents to see if she could work out who had bought what for who, it had been explained to her what Christmas was all about but she was far more interested in the present part of the celebration. Lizzie had been the second one up, she was excited too, just like the kids, but her favorite part was the food (see she is a little like Phil!). She had promised the ducks that she would make them a home cooked breakfast lunch that she assured would be divine. So she had gotten up early to start the cooking.

At around nine o' clock a blonde head popped through the door to the kitchen and looked about, he could smell something really good cooking and wanted to see what it was, he walked up to a pot that had some kind of stew in it and peered in, inside were vegetables boiling in what looked like herbs. He scrunched up his beak and went to the oven where the Turkey was already well underway and opened the door to get a good look.

"Nosedive Flashblade! Get out of this kitchen now before I put you in there with that Turkey!" 

"Aw come on Liz, I was just taking a peek don't get you knickers in a twist, geese!" Lizzie glared at her boyfriend's younger brother with one hand on her hip she stamped on the floor and pointed to the door.

"Now." She said dangerously quietly. Wildwing chuckled as he heard the two's little dispute and snuck in whilst Lizzie was checking that Dive hadn't done any lasting damage to her precious meal. He silently walked up to her and as she straightened up;

"Merry Christmas Baby," he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled her neck, finishing off with a small peck on the cheek. Lizzie, surprised at first, leaned into him leaning her head onto the side of his, holding his arms.

"Merry Christmas honey, your going to keep people out of here right?"

"What about breakfast?"

"On the table, unless the girls have eaten it all already, which they shouldn't have because, I made enough to feed a small army."

"Oh well, that'll cover Mallory!" Chuckled Phoenix leaning on the door frame.

"I heard that Flashblade!" Yelled an exhausted Mallory, who'd been out clubbing the night before.

"Oh I'm sorry I forgot it was your time of the month!"

"I hate you!"

"The feeling's mutual!"

"Good!"

"Glad you're happy!"

"I am!"

"Are you done?" Wildwing asked his sister raising an eyebrow, though still keeping his arms around Lizzie, "Cause you know this is supposed to be a peaceful day."

"Yeah yeah whatever," Phoenix waved her hands in the air and went to make sure that Millie and Nina hadn't eaten all of the chocolates on the tree, muttering on the way, "sheesh, when have I ever been quiet, god you can tell we haven't been around each other for a while." Wildwing just shook his head at his hopeless sister and continued on with pestering his girlfriend.

Lunchtime came and went and Lizzie had to go to her mother's the next day so she went to pack before they opened their presents, knowing full well that it was annoying the hell out of not only Millie but Nosedive as well. Nina still wasn't all that sure she wanted to be around everybody at once, she was still very jumpy if she did anything wrong. Two days before she had dropped a cup and it smashed on the floor she ran to her room and hid in the closet for two hours before anybody found her and when they did she was hyperventilating and rocking back and forth with tear streaming down her face. It had been Wildwing who had found her and despite the fact he was almost three times her size he managed to not only comfort her but get hr smiling again too.

At around four o'clock in the evening they all sat around the huge Christmas tree they all helped decorate and began giving the presents. The majority of the gifts were cloths, jewelry or books. Lizzie had been donned the gift queen by Dive when she gave him a game that wouldn't be released for another three months telling him that they would keep him quiet for at least a few hours, she gave Wildwing a beautiful oil painting for his wall of a landscape in Alaska (as for some unknown reason she was unable to obtain one of a landscape on Puckworld, I wonder why?), either way Wing loved it. When all of the presents had been given out, which took quite a while as it seemed Nina had never received a gift before and was unsure as to what to do, Wildwing took Lizzie to one side and asked her if they could go somewhere a little more private. So they each grabbed a coat and snuck upstairs to the roof, for a long while they just stared up at the stars.

"Um Wildwing, as much as I love freezing my but off so we can have a little privacy, "she turned to him, "why did you bring up here?" 

"Well," Wildwing took a deep breath, his hands were in his pockets and unknown to her he was squeezing a small velvet covered box, "I. . . I uh. . . " '_oh man I don't believe this, I wrote this all out and everything and now I can't say it!' _He sighed and turned to face her he looked into her eyes, took a deep breath, removed the box from his pocket and got down on one knee like he'd seen in the movies (yes I know it's corny but I'm a hopeless romantic), cleared his throat and said, "Lizzie, would you marry me?"

Lizzie stood there gaping, for once she was totally speechless. She hadn't expected this or even thought about it, but recently their relationship had become more intense and she had to admit that something in her was telling her that this was right, that it would all fit. Wildwing looked at her and inwardly panicked at her silence thinking that any minute she'd laugh in his face telling him that he was ridiculous to think that she'd actually marry an alien.

"Lizzie?" He questioned nervously, "Baby, honey, don't keep a guy waiting." All she did was smile and lunge at him falling into his arms and they kissed, "Do I take that as a yes?" a small 'uh-huh' was heard and he smiled as he slipped the ring onto the finger. Of course then Nosedive, who was behind the door leaning over Duke, Phoenix and the girls slipped and fell through the door in a heap, the rest of the team standing behind looking sheepish. Wildwing looked at his new fiancé to see she was bright red, after many congratulations form the rest of the team they went back downstairs to finish off the Christmas celebrations.


	7. Chapter seven: Ghost's of the past

_**Family.**_

**Chapter 7:**

Nosedive wondered through the pond in a bit of a dream, the place was way too quiet. He was the only one up, lately he'd actually had time to think about what had happened in his life, normally his brother would keep him occupied so that he wouldn't but with a wedding to organize he didn't have much time for his ever-loving baby brother. Lately he'd been having the same haunting dream about a friend he'd lost in the invasion. Her name was Saffron, she was unusual to say the least her family could be traced back quite easily to Ducaine's time and legend has it that one of her ancestor's helped him fight the saurian's magus. She was a witch, a powerful one too, that's why she was dead now. Draganus had murdered her and her 'clan' himself, believing that with the mask missing they were the only viable threat, she was ten. Draganus had broadcast it to all of Puckworld, he saw his friend die on a huge screen and he remembered how much he had cried that night, how much the look in her eyes had haunted him for these past few years since and wished with all his might that there was someway to bring her back. He sighed and headed into the kitchen and grabbed a soda out of the fridge, sat down on a stool and started to drink.

Dive looked round when he heard someone moving around in the next room and decided to check it out, it was probably just Canard and Silver back from another of their all nighters, getting a little friendly to finish the night off. He opened the door just enough to see who it was and was a little surprised to see that it was Nina.

"Hey Nina," she looked up, no longer frightened of her new family, "what are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep." Was her simple answer.

"Bad dream huh?" Dive said with understanding.

"Uh huh." Nina replied absent mindedly whilst she started intently at whatever she was holding in her hands.

"What's that?" Dive asked as he moved closer, he stopped when he saw what it was. A frighteningly familiar pendant, it may not have been the same one as hers but it was definitely the emblem of the Thorn Blood clan, her clan. Dive eventually gathered his senses enough to ask, "Where . . . Where did you get that?"

"I found it," Nina looked at Dive and her expression changed from interest to worry, "What's wrong you look funny?"

"I . . I knew someone who owned one like that once."

"Really, you want it cause I don't really like it s'just my daddy was real mad when it got lost so I made sure he never finded it." She held out the small pendant to him and he gingerly took it, with a sickening feeling he turned the pendant over to find the initial's of the owner. He wished he hadn't it was hers, 'STB' was inscribed on the back like he'd seen it so many times as a child. "Nosedive are you sure you okay, cause you looks scared." Her words fell on deaf ears as he felt his hand clamp around that small piece of jewelry and his body turn and run. He didn't stop until he got to his room, he ran to the closet and grabbed a shoe box and rummaged trough all of the memories of his time of earth and found the one thing he'd managed to keep safe form childhood, through the camps, through everything. He picked up his memory and though his hand was shaking he compared the pendant to the one around the neck of the white feathered, black haired girl in the picture, before he knew it he was sobbing for all he was worth. He knew it had been hopeless to even think that she might have somehow survived but it was still hard to let go.

And that's how Wildwing found him, sobbing in the corner of his room. Nina had woken him up after Dive had just run off, worried that it had been her that had upset him. Of course the noise of his sobbing had woken up the lighter sleepers and they the heavier, so everybody else were standing outside his room wondering what could possibly have upset their blonde teammate so much that he was bordering hysterical. It didn't take much for Wildwing to work it out, he'd seen the carnage Dragaunus had brought down upon the Thorn Blood's as well, and Nina had told him about the pendant, so when he saw the tattered picture of Dive and Saffron at his Grandmother's house on Puckworld he instantly wrapped his arms around his brother and let the teenager sob into his shoulder until Dive cried himself out and to sleep. He then picked him up and placed him in bed wrapping the covers around him and placed the pendant and picture on the side table. As he closed the door and was faced with ten questioning faces he motioned everyone to go the rec. room so that he could explain. 

"Saff?" Asked Phoenix when the others had set off.

"Yeah." He replied sadly, she nodded and decided it best to put Nina and Millie to bed as she already knew what was wrong.

Wildwing entered the rec. room and nodded gratefully at Tanya when she gave him a cup of coffee. He sat there for a while, not sure of how or where to start.

"Well what's wrong with him this time?" Asked Mallory in her usual insensitive way. Wildwing shot her a glare before answering.

"He just had a nasty reminder of something he rather forget," Wildwing sighed and decided to start from the beginning:

  
  


**TO BE CONTINUED:** (P.S. Sorry it's so late I've been skiing so bit busy, anywho, more to come soon. Oh and sorry it's a bit short, I've got horses and work tomorrow and it's quite late!)


	8. Chapter Eight: Small Beginings

_**Family.**_

**Chapter Eight: Saffron Thorn-Blood**.

_Flashback:_

Amelia Flashblade looked back at her youngest son with concern. He was dozing in the back seat of the car as she drove him to her mother's to recuperate from a nasty bout illness which the doctors still couldn't figure out what it was, all they could tell her was that his immune system had broken down. It had been a terrible ordeal for the four year old little boy who had previously been so full of life, a little shy but full of life never the less. Her mother lived out in the country side where it would be nice and quiet for him to get his health back and in a few months time it would be spring break and her two other children Wildwing and Phoenix could also join them (so could her husband Max if he ever found the time). The familiar turning to her home village brought her out of her daydream and it wasn't long before she was pulling in at her mother's large country house by the forest. She quietly got out and took their bags in and then she gently shook the sleeping blonde boy.

"Nosedive dear we're here," he groaned and rolled over to face the other way, Amelia quickly undid the seat belt so he wouldn't strangle himself, "Grandma's baked you your favorite, apple pie with sultanas and raisins." With that he got up and ran into the house, mother in tow, where he promptly sat at the kitchen table propping his head up with his right hand and hanging the other lazily at his side. Amelia chuckled at the sight, at least he was able to walk around, it had only been a few short weeks since he had been in hospital not allowed to move, or speak to anybody who had had any kind of illness with in two to three weeks.

"Well it's about time you two got here," said Katrina feather-Heart, "I was beginning to think you weren't going to bother visiting your old grandma."

"GRANDMA!" Nosedive immediately woke up at the sight of her and flew into her arms, "Can we have apple pie now? Please Grandma?"

"It's still in the oven, but I swear as soon as it's ready you'll be the first to know." The elderly woman looked over to her daughter and smiled, "you both look tired why don't the two of you go upstairs to your rooms and have a lie down whilst I finish supper, I'll call you both when it's ready."

"Okay Grandma," Nosedive gave her another hug before starting for the door that would lead him to the grand old stairs up to the bedrooms, but just before he went through the door, "grandma are we having pizza?"

"Nosedive," said his mother scoldingly, "you know very well that the doctor told you you were not to eat certain foods for a while, you could get sick again."

"Yes mom." Nosedive's beak lowered and he walked up the stairs slowly making his way to his room that his grandma kept just so for him, she'd even been out that day and got a wide selection of comics from the local store. Amelia followed him but entered a different room and climbed into bed and it wasn't long before both of them were sound asleep. When Katrina went up to call them they both looked so peaceful that she didn't have the heart to wake them so she let them sleep and both slept well into the next day.

Amelia was the first up she stretched and went into the bathroom and ran the bath water determined to have and long luxurious soak, in there she found her favorite bath salts had been left for her and she mentally reminded herself to thank her mother. After about an hour in the tub (it is possible my mum spends longer!) she got out and changed into some clean cloths noticing that her mum had been in to collect her dirty ones. It never ceased to amaze her that no matter how old her mother got she still took care of her daughter like she was a child still. Amelia walked downstairs, stopping to check on the sleeping Nosedive on the way, to find her mother in a pair of old trousers, and checked shirt with holes in her reading spectacles and her graying hair tied loosely into a bun. Amelia thought that her mother hadn't noticed her standing there watching her but;

"Good morning dear," she said taking a cup of coffee off the side table and taking a sip, "nice rest?"

"Yes, thank you," Amelia walked over to the pot on the hub and poured herself a mug.

"Is that husband of yours going to be joining us?"

"I don't know, mother," she took a sip, "do you have to say it like that I know you don't like him but I love him and he's the father of my children."

"I know dear, but I just don't think he deserved you, I never did like army men, you know it's a shame you never did anything about that crush you had on Oliver Thorn-Blood, now he's a fine young man, you were ever such good friends at one time but you seemed to drift apart," Katrina sighed, "such a shame really, ah well."

"Mother." Amelia said in a warning tone not really wanting to get into 'that' argument again.

"Yes, yes I know." Katrina took another sip of her coffee and stood up, putting the mug and it's contents into the sink she went out to check on her cattle, saddling up her horse to do so.

Meanwhile Nosedive had woken up and was raring to go, he grabbed some warm cloths not wanting to be stopped by his mother or grandmother because he was underdressed making him loose valuable playing time. That done he rushed down stairs and out the door just about slow enough to hear his mother telling him not to go too far, and if he did only to go into town not into the forest. He shouted 'okay' and kept running. He got to the edge of the forest and skirted around the edge to where he would find the path that would lead from his grandma's to the town and then to the playground that had been built by the family that used to live in the next big house over from Katrina. When he got to the park the first thing he did was play on the swings he went as high as he could go until he got bored then he tried the slide, but he got bored, then the merry go round, then the see saw, and then the sand box. But Nosedive was an intelligent kid which meant he got bored of simple thing really easily so he went to the store to look at the comic books. 

Whilst he was looking he realized he wouldn't be able to buy anything because he didn't have an adult with him so he went out side and sat on the front step.

"You all right young man?" asked a friendly voice behind him.

"Yes sir, I just forgot to bring my mommy to get a new comic book." Nosedive sighed dramatically and rested his beak on his knees.

"Oh hello Oliver," said a new voice coming from the store, it was the owner Mr. Davies, "I see you've met Amelia's boy."

"Amelia?" He looked at Nosedive a little surprised at this news, but not much, "well now young man we can't have Amelia's boy going without now can we," Nosedive looked up at the man for the first time, he had black shoulder length hair, but white feathers, he wasn't hugely built but he wasn't all that skinny either and he had unusual clothes on that Nosedive would learn later in life were called Gothic, "you go on inside' uh, what was your name?"

"Nosedive, sir." Dive wasn't sure he should trust a stranger but he knew his mother's name was Amelia and this man seemed to know her so he guessed it was all right.

"Nosedive," Oliver said as if testing it on his tongue, "well, Nosedive, I'm an old friend of your mom's so I'll treat you to a comic of your choice, you go choose and I'll be right behind you." Nosedive didn't need telling twice he ran inside and began the hard and grueling process of choosing which comic book he was going to get, he could read a little even at his young age, but not much so he liked ones with more pictures than words. As he did so Oliver walked up to Mr. Davies, "I didn't know Amelia was married already, I certainly didn't think she'd have a kid yet."

"Ah well that's her third," replied the overweight Mr. Davies, Oliver raised an eyevrow, "she's got three lovely kids her first's the spitting image of Katrina, but that one's be awful ill, so I'm told, so Amelia's brought him back here to recover."

"Poor kid, you know what was wrong?"

"No, you'd have to ask them that but I do know it was enough to send the little tyke inta hospital though, Katrina was quite upset."

"Really."

"You know it's nice that there's some Thorn-Bloods back in the village again your kind always did bring us good fortune, I hope you'll be here ta stay."

"I hope so too." Oliver looked down as he felt a small hand tug at his trouser leg.

"Please sir, I'd like this one, sir." Oliver laughed.

"Please call me Oliver, you make me sound like some old man."

"My daddy makes us all call our elders sir or mam, else we get in trouble."

"Your daddy here with you?" Nosedive shook his head, "well then in Ducaine Grove you can call people by their first name's, okay Nosedive." Nosedive nodded his head and grinned, "Say why don't I walk you home, I've just got to pick up my daughter from the hairdressers okay, I'd like to say hi to your mom anyway." Nosedive nodded again and Oliver paid for the comic.

The two walked over to the Hairdressers to find a little white feathered girl, about Dive's age with the same jet black hair as Oliver sitting on the doorstep.

"Hey cupcake, lets have a look then," she grinned, stood up and did a dramatic twirl to show off her new hair cut (a trim but you know what kids are like), "sweetie this is Nosedive, he's my old friend Amelia's son, you remember the lady from the picture?"

"Yeah daddy the really pretty one." She said enthusiastically.

"Well we're going to walk him home, okay."

"Uh huh, okay," she said quickly, then addressing Nosedive, "Hi I'm Saffron, you can call me Saffy, I hope you'll play with me, I don't know anybody here at all so it's going to be so boring!" Nosedive almost laughed at the speed this girl was talking but his shyness prevented him from doing so.

"Hi." he said shyly.

Oliver walked him home and had a long chat with his old friend telling her how his parents had died so he now owned the house and had persuaded his wife Miranda to move back here. All the while Saffy was playing with Nosedive, at first Nosedive was too shy to play properly but with Saffy's exuberance and his natural instinct to play he was soon having the time of his life.

_End Flashback:_

"And since them They've been the best of friends, at one point Saffy was staying at our house term time so that Saffy could go to school near us and they could spend more time together and then he'd spend the holidays out at Ducaine Grove. But when he was little he spent a lot of time out at my gran's suffering from the same weird illness"

"So what happened to her?" Asked Silver.

"Well, you've all heard of the Thorn-Blood clan right?" Wildwing looked around hoping that he didn't have to explain much.

"Yes, they were the last surviving clan of the Order of the Goddess," answered Grin, "they were a truly enlightened people who worshiped not only the land but all living things, the land being the mother Goddess, they also possessed great magickal power, legend has it that one of their ancestors helped Ducaine when the saurians first attacked."

"They're the ones, and that's exactly why they're not around any more," Wildwing continued, "when Draganus first conquered he knew the mask was supposedly no longer a problem but when he found out that the Thorn-Blood family was still alive and well he souk* out every last member of the clan, whether blood relative or not and slaughtered them for all of Puckworld to see." Wildwing clenched his fists at the memory, it hurt him enough that he'd seen it, he'd liked the family as well, but the memories of how Nosedive had taken it still haunted him even now. Lizzie came up behind her fiancee and started to rub his shoulders.

"Why?" Asked Tanya, a little confused, she had heard about the clan but didn't believe in magick so she had just assumed it was just some ancient religion.

"Because Oliver alone had the power to stop Draganus," Tanya looked at Wildwing in shock, "just think what the entire family could have done."

"If they were so powerful than why didn't they know it was going to happen?" Mallory spat, she didn't believe in magick either, considering it nonsense.

"I don't know," Wildwing admitted leaning back against Lizzie's warm body as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "Dive knew more about their powers than I did, but I don't want you guys mentioning any of this to him okay, he misses her a lot and he took it real bad in the camps, so bad that he got sick again and barely survived, so please don't mention it." They all nodded and gradually everyone drifted back off to bed. Lizzie and Wildwing were the last to go.

"You want me to stay with you tonight?" She asked, her arms still around his neck. He nodded, got up and they headed of for his room.

  
  


*(is that how you spell it?)

**Hope you like it more to come!**


	9. Chapter Nine: A Lost Soul

_**Family.**_

  
  


**Chapter Nine: A Lost Soul.**

A young girl trudged through the as yet rebuilt village of Ducaine Grove. A long time ago she would have called it home, but now, well now it held too many haunting memories. She had seen her parents and other members of her clan murdered here, despite the spells the clan had placed on and around the village to protect it. She had seen herself die here. She had been ten when the saurians came, her father had called the Thorn-Blood clan back to the ancestral home as soon as he sensed something was about to happen, he had even warned the authorities, _"fat lot of good that did," _she thought, _"what was it they called him? . . Oh yes a dithering coot who belongs in either a museum or a funny farm, wonderful characters those army boys, glad none of my friends wanted to join them." _He barely had time to cast the spell before the saurians hit, but he never got time to strengthen it. She remembered that night so well. He came to her room and asked her to join the family down stairs, she had been scared because he didn't wake her up in the night unless it was something really serious. He'd taken her to the library where her family had gathered and said;

_Flashback:_

"Cupcake, we will not survive this war, but you must, therefore we need you to go out into the woods and hide, but first we must use a piece of your hair to make a doppleganger," the little girl looked at her father confused not understanding the large word, "We will make an exact replica of you so that you can hide and stay safe, we will call on an old 'friend' of the Thorn-Blood family to help teach and protect you, so go up and pack your bags, now cupcake we must prepare the spell." she didn't say a word she was a brave girl and didn't find much use for crying unless she felt it absolutely necessary, so she went back to her room and packed her bags. Her mother soon joined her, being only an ordinary magickless puckworlder she wasn't much use downstairs so instead she wanted to spend her last few hours with her daughter before the child was spirited away to safety. Tears streamed down the older woman's cheeks as she lovingly helped the child pack a small rucksack with a few clothes and some other essentials, not forgetting a framed picture of the family they and her husband the forefront, and one picture of the child and a dear friend whom she doubted the girl would ever see again.

"Please mother," said the girl, "please don't cry. I'll be okay honest." The girl didn't know what else to say she loved all of her family so much, it was hurting but there was nothing she could do, she almost did cry but she was determined not to in front of her mother so as not to upset her anymore. She knew it must be terrible for someone who didn't really believe in the teachings of the Goddess to know in advance that you were going to be killed brutally. The child shuddered at the thought and suddenly felt herself wrapped in her sobbing mothers arms, doing the best to comfort her she gently pushed away and closed her bag, changed into some outdoor clothes and taking her mother's hand went downstairs heading back to the library. They entered on the tail end of an invocation spell and in a large ball of golden light a body appeared, it stretched out and her feet touched the ground. She was not a duck, the child didn't know what she was. She was dressed in small leather boots, an unusual dress that was cut into four triangles in the skirt, and was low cut around her chest, her hair was pure white, the same color as her friend's brother's feathers,plus it was thick and spiky. As the light subsided she opened her eyes which glowed for a moment and then showed bright red eyes and cat like pupils, her ears were also pointed. The girl's father approached the newcomer.

"Demoness Mihoshi we have released you to fulfill a mission, once that is done you will have your freedom again, do you understand demon?" Mihoshi looked boredly at the man in front of her, jumping into the air she landed as if on some invisible stool in mid air, she crossed her legs and started adjusting her hair.

"Yeah yeah I understand, I look after the kid good and I get to be a fully fledged demon again and I don't go back in the cave, I get it I get it!" Mihoshi looked over at the girl who stared defiantly back, "You do know she's kinda scrawny to be saving a world right?"

"Cupcake," the father said ignoring the demon's comments, "I need you to come here so I can create your replica." She obeyed, he took a strand of her hair and put it into a small caldron and started to chant. Five minutes later she was looking at an exact replica of herself. However no sooner had her father cleared away the evidence of the spells cast' there was there a loud crash that came from the doorway. Her father looked towards the noise in shock, but knew who it was, "By the Goddess I didn't expect them so soon," he turned to Mihoshi, "protect my daughter demoness Mihoshi, we'll make sure you are not detected or followed, do not use your powers until you get a fair way away though, I sense a saurian of the old ways with them, he will sense your powers and will know something is not right if you do." Mihoshi nodded, grabbed her charge around the waist and ran in the opposite direction to the noise, "all right Thorn-Blood clan lets show them why its not nice to threaten our family." He took one last glance at the retreating demon and his beloved daughter and making sure that his wife had the doppleganger he started throwing out as many defensive spells as he could.

Mihoshi got as far as the trees and dared not go further until everything calmed down, for although she was a powerful demon and could handle anything a saurian could throw at her the death of her charge meant going back to the cold tomb she had been sealed in years ago, plus the spell that had released her made sure that she didn't have full access to her powers until she had completed her mission. It wasn't long before she was wishing that she had found a better spot because the Thorn-Bloods that had survived the battle were rounded up in the clearing in front of them and with one saurian broadcasting footage to Goddess knows where were slaughtered one by one until only the child's father, mother and doppleganger remained. Draganus himself appeared to kill them slowly, leaving the father till last who had tears streaming down his face from the loss of his wife and the apparent loss of his daughter.

_End Flashback:_

"Hey Saffron!" a small white cat pounced onto the shoulder of the girl, "Saff are you sure you know where this spell is?"

"Yes Mihoshi, just be quiet if anyone hears you they're going to wonder where on Puckworld I got a talking cat from!" Saffy arrived at the foot of a small hill where she found a small rock, she cast a small spell to move it and underneath was an ancient book that had belonged to her ancestor, in it was a teleportation spell that would take her to where Draganus and the strike force were so that she could stop the killing once and for all, "I hope your ready for this Mihoshi," the young teenager said to her companion, "because I wouldn't be surprised if we're in for one hell of a ride!" She grabbed the book, found the spell and cast it. A dark purple light engulfed them and they were suddenly somewhere else, at the top of a cliff they could see a city so they found a road and walked towards it.


	10. Chapter 10: Saffy to the Rescue!

_**Family.**_

**Chapter Ten: Saffy To The Rescue.**

Saffy and Mihoshi walked along street by street through the strange city, as they got deeper into the city there were more shops showing posters of what Saffron assumed were the natives of this particular planet, they looked similar to Mihoshi but they didn't look like they had powers and she certainly didn't sense all that much magick from the planet. Something caught the corner of her eye as she walked along. It was a sports shop and in the window was a large poster of someone she'd missed greatly over the past eight years, he still looked the same with the same thick blonde hair but he wore it longer. What shocked her most was the pendant around his neck, she'd thought she'd lost it back when her clan was murdered but there it was plain as day around Nosedive's neck, tied with a piece of black cord. He was smiling but something about his eyes told her that he wasn't happy when the picture was taken for the poster, they were sad and distant.

"Saffron," Mihoshi turned form her cat form to her normal form in the blink of an eye to check on her charge, "what's wrong?"

"This guy," she tore her eyes away form the picture to look at Mihoshi, "I know him," she smiled and looked down, "he's a very dear friend of mine, from when I was little." Mihoshi nodded in what she hoped was an understanding way, she'd never really had a friend before Saffron, and they carried on in silence.

Not far away a lone boy walked the streets of Anaheim wondering why his life had turned out the way it had. As he walked he fingered the pendant hanging around his neck and wished for a miracle to bring back the rightful owner, but doubted it would happen. He felt more tears at his eyes but they wouldn't fall, he had cried so much lately that there were no more left. He'd slipped into a mild depression, not enough for Tanya to worry about him but that didn't stop Wildwing and Phoenix, Lizzie had tried to cheer him up as well, she'd got him a black cord for Saffron's pendant so it looked like one a guy would wear. He knew they loved him and were just worried but he just wanted to curl up somewhere and be alone where no one else could hurt him, he desperately wanted to go home, for things to be the way they were before the fear, the tears and the death, the saurians had ruined everything for him. Nosedive didn't notice the figure in the shadows tailing him.

Saffron rounded a corner and looked back at Mihoshi who, back in her cat form, had lagged behind looking lovingly at a food store. It had been three days since they had more than just scraps they could find and berries, Saffron was capable of conjuring up food but magick food was by no means nourishing or tasty and the poor girl looked like a walking skeleton she tried to hide it with baggy cloths she'd conjured but to no avail, her facial features alone showed that she desperately needed more then a few square meals a month. Saffron looked back down the road she was heading and she felt her heart in her throat when she saw Nosedive walking towards her not noticing who he was approaching because his eyes were down and looking at the floor.

"N. . . Nosedive?" She squeaked a little higher than she expected. The blonde teen looked up as soon as he was addressed and his eyes went wide when he saw a girl he'd known so well years ago that he'd thought was lost to him. She was older now, taller, skinnier, but it was her, it was his Saffron. She was the one who made the first move, she leapt towards him and hugged him for all she was worth it wasn't long before he was tightly hugging her back and they fell to their knees. Saffron started to cry for the first time since the saurians had invaded, she didn't care anymore Nosedive understood her and he'd understand. "Oh Nosedive I missed you so much!" she sobbed and he gently started to rock her back and forth in an attempt to comfort her.

"I thought you were dead Saff," he said with a cracking voice, she leant back to look into his eyes, "I saw. . . on the screens, they. . they showed it all, to everyone." There were tears in his eyes now too.

"My dad made a double of me and told me to escape, we didn't get far, I saw it all too it was horrible." she looked down and closed her eyes, a tear rolled down her left cheek and Nosedive delicately wiped it away, she opened her eyes leaned into the comforting hand and smiled at her friend fingering the pendant at the same time. There was this small little voice in her head telling her how right this felt being with Nosedive and him comforting her like this. She had felt so comfortable in their embrace, she leaned forward again and nuzzled into his chest, smiling when she felt his arms wrap around her once more.

"Who were you with?" He asked her.

"Huh?"

"You said we, we didn't get far, so who helped you." He hoped she didn't think he was accusing her of anything he just wanted to know, after all she'd only been ten, he'd had his brother to look after him, who did she have?

"She had me." Said a voice to his left, he looked around to see who it was that spoke but all he could see was a white cat with red eyes, he looked a little closer and the cat began to glow, suddenly she turned into a white haired pointed eared woman with red eyes. Nosedive gapped, "close your mouth kid you might catch a fly!" Mihoshi joked and he did, "The name's Mihoshi, demoness Mihoshi, at your service," she performed a very dramatic low bow, "I'm Saffron's gaurdian, oh and uh the cat thing was Saffy's idea, it meant we could still mingle on Puckworld without people noticing me, same goes for here I guess."

"Nice to meet you Mihoshi," he smiled, "wait till Wing knows your okay I. . . "

"He won't," Siege interrupted, "cause you two'll be dead before he can get to you!" a whole horde of hunter drones appeared and headed in their direction. Mihoshi growled like an angry Lioness and set to work throwing any and all of her destructive spells at them. Saffron used her magick to protect Nosedive, whilst Nosedive changed into his battle kit and started blasting, Saffy was shocked to see him so good with a gun but grateful that he could take care of himself. An explosion went off way too close to Nosedive at one point and she had to concentrate all of the spell on one point to protect him from the blast but she made a mistake and realised it when she felt the hot laser sear through her right shoulder. Nosedive looked around to find Saffron and paled as he saw her drop to her knees he fired his Puck Blaster at Chameleon who had fired the shot and ran to her holding her close.

"Hold on Saff, don't die, please don't die." he whispered softly, she smiled weakly up at him and he changed back into his street clothes keeping his blaster separate and took off his shirt, tearing it into smaller pieces he started to wrap up her shoulder with the material to create a make shift bandage. He went to pick her up to get her to the pond when he felt the cold metal of the end of a laser at the base of his skull.

"So long you stinkin' waste of feathers!" Siege said triumphantly before Mihoshi threw one of her energy balls at him throwing him at a group of hunter drones. 

"Get her out of her," Mihoshi yelled, "I'll hold these low lives off, you just save Saffron!" Nosedive simply nodded and picking his friend up ran for all he was worth, there were four blocks to run, which wasn't much but when your carrying another person it's a little more difficult. For Saffron it was so painful, she'd never been shot before and it hurt, her right arm hung limply down towards the ground whilst her other was resting against Dive's chest, she tried to stay awake but it was becoming a loosing battle her eyes began to droop and she was soon unconscious. 

In her lab Tanya was tinkering away at one of her inventions that she couldn't seem to get to work the way she wanted it to when;

"Tanya," came Dive's voice over the intercom, _'what now?'_ she thought, "Tanya please, you gotta get to the infirmary I need you please!" His tone was Bordering on hysterical and in that state he wasn't about to tell her unless she went to him. As she rushed down the corridors that would lead her to the infirmary she noticed that everyone else had beat her there and were crowding around one of the beds.

"What's wrong?" She asked but got her answer when she saw who was occupying the bed. A young girl of around Dive's age maybe a little younger was lying there, she had a laser wound in her shoulder, she was deathly pale, not to mention thin and to top it off Wildwing was having to restrain Nosedive on the other bed to stop him doing anything to make the girl's situation worse. She immediately set to work, activating the medicomm, cleaning and re-bandaging the girls wound with something a little more sterile. An hour later she was satisfied that she was stable and decided it was time she would ask her questions. "Who is she Dive?" He didn't answer only stared with frightened eyes at the figure in the bed, so she looked at Wildwing.

"I don't quite believe I'm saying this, but that's the girl I told you about the other day, Saffron Thorn-Blood." He looked past Tanya at Saffy, still not believing it, but he had checked her with the mask when Dive had first arrived with her in his arms covered in her blood. Nobody was going to learn anymore form Nosedive or Saffy that night so Wing offered to stay in the infirmary whilst everyone else went to bed. The next day Dive told them everything that had happened, doing his best not to cry. He'd only just got her back and now she might be taken away from him again, he shook with emotion and shock and Tanya gave him some sedatives in his drink to get him to sleep a little more.

The next evening Saffy woke up it took her a while to remember what had happened, she looked around and saw Nosedive in the bed next to her fast asleep, she stared up at the ceiling and tried to go back to sleep. However after a little while she was distracted by Nosedive who seemed to be having a bad dream, he started to toss and turn and groan in his sleep, and soon he started to weep. She groggily and unsteadily pulled herself to her feet and walked the few paces over to him and tried to wake him after a few attempts his eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly. He shook form head to toe and had tears streaming down his face. He looked over at Saffy and lunged into her embracing her like he did two nights before, he'd dreamt that she died again. Both felt that same feeling they had felt when they had first seen each other again, how right it all felt and when they looked up at each other their beaks were so close neither knew what to do, Saffy blushed and simply rested her head on his chest, he leant back down on the bed and they fell asleep in each other's arms. That's how Wildwing, Lizzie and Tanya found them the next morning.

**Sorry this took so long but I forgot I hadn't put this one up so it's been on my computer for a few weeks, hope you like it. Hugs n Kisses Angel. X X X **


	11. Chapter 11: Spring Madness

_**Family.**_

**Chapter 11: Spring Madness.**

Wildwing and Lizzie had decided that they would have a May wedding and had told their lovable manager/father that if he publicised where and when the wedding would be they would give him gift wrapped to Draganus themselves. So their wedding in the middle of nowhere was going to be a well kept secret. The manor house they were getting married in was surrounded by woodland and they had only known about it from a friend of Lizzie's, Wildwing refused to tell Lizzie the cost as he knew she would never have agreed to the amount he had paid but both agreed on one thing, the wedding had to be secret, with a minimum amount of guest so that they would be safe from Draganus. So, now that the venue and the date had been aranged (May 15th) they had only to organise the rest, which unfortunately for the guys involved shopping, plus it meant there was only three weeks to get everything ready.

"Will you guys stop moping around out there and get in here!" yelled Silver to Nosedive, Grin, Duke and Canard, Wildwing was already trying on a suit in the dressing room but the others did not want to be shopping with the credit queen Silver.

"Man I swear she could win a meddle in shopping, she's worse than Mal!" Dive said as he rolled his eyes and followed the others inside, causing a few snickers, "I hope Saffy's okay."

"She'll be fine kid Lizzie and the girls'll look after her." Although Saffron was up and about she was still pretty weak and according to Tanya it could take weeks even months for her to recover due to the fact that she was so skinny. Nosedive looked over his shoulder wondering where they were and could have sworn he saw a very familiar cat trot along between people's legs in the mall.

Elsewhere, Lizzie was trying on various wedding dresses and freaking at the prices, she wasn't poor but she wasn't rich like Wildwing either and her dear old dad didn't seem like he wanted to pony up the dough. Of course Phoenix saw right through that and was trying to get her to fall in love with the most expensive dresses in the store with Mallory as her back up, the children were playing in the corner of the shop with some dolls. Saffron was sitting in a corner looking at some magazines Nosedive had bought her whilst half listening to Tanya waffle on about how interesting it would be for her to run some tests on the magick she did to see if she could work out how it all worked, when;

"Hi, girlfriend!!" someone yelled from the shop door making everyone inside jump.

"Taisha!" Lizzie screamed, ran over to her friend a pretty black girl around Lizzie's age, and hugged her, "I thought you were never going to make it, you get time off to be my Maid of Honor or not girl?"

"Duh, me miss my best girl's wedding?" she grinned and leant over to speak privately in Lizzie's ear, "Besides I want to check out the uh, potential you're linvin with girl." Lizzie playfully slapped her best friend and they returned to the stunned shop assistant and continued trying on dresses. Lizzie finally decided on a medieval style ivory dress with a train that fixed just behind the ears in her hair, flared sleeves and a corset bodice. Taisha chose a red silk, off the shoulder, long, elegant dress with roses to go in her hair, Tai's was so nice the other girls decided on all having the same. Saffron however didn't think she was included in the whole bridesmaid thing so kept herself to herself until she realized Lizzie was walking over to her.

"Aren't you going to try one on Saf?" Lizzie asked as she knelt down beside her.

"Me?!" she replied genuinely shocked.

"Sure, you're part of the family too now so you have to be one of the bridesmaids," Lizzie gently took the small girls hand and led her over to the dressing rooms, "I wouldn't hear otherwise." Saffron obediently tried on the dress she was handed that was another clone of the others and stepped out and looked at herself in the mirror, she tried not to frown, she did look pretty but it just wasn't her and she knew it, Phoenix, Tanya, Mallory and Taisha, were all telling her how 'lovely' she looked and that made it worse, couldn't they see it wasn't her. But she didn't want to hurt their feelings so she just nodded and went along with it, then she and other girls went to have themselves measured so that the dresses would look tailor made for each of them and that's when Lizzie noticed Saffron looking at herself in the mirror again with an odd expression on her face, "You know," she said smiling, "I just don't think that dress is you." Saffron turned and looked at her in relief.

"I'm real sorry Lizzie it's so nice of you and all but, well I'm . . .I'm not this type of person, I don't wear this stuff," the raven haired duck looked at the ground afraid of how the human would react, "I'm so sorry Lizzie."

"It's okay Saffron, you don't have to wear that dress if you don't want to," Lizzie put her arm around her, "you wear whatever you feel comfortable in." Saffron smiled and rushed back to the dressing room to get back into her old gothic clothes she felt so comfortable in. It was then that Lizzie had an idea, so as she went to tell the assistant that they wouldn't be needing all of the dresses, and to warn her that Silver would probably be in later that day to be fitted for her dress she also asked if she could take a copy of Saffron's measurements, which they didn't mind at all. She then told the girls that she had to go else where with Taisha and the two friends walked off in the other direction.

The guys had finally finished getting their new suits for the wedding and were walking to the Migrator, where they hoped the girls would already be waiting, of course they weren't so they just put their shopping in the migrator and went to a fast food joint to grab something to eat. Canard was up at the counter buying the meals when a scream was heard, then another, and another, until a whole herd of people came running from the nearest electrical store and down the street. The six ducks looked at each other, left the store and changed into their battle gear. They rounded a corner where they saw Cleghorn and some nut with a gun firing at anyone within range. Wildwing stomach dropped and he immediately started looking any wounded he could see in case it was Lizzie or one of the girls. 

"What are you guys doing here, this is police business!" Cleghorn yelled at them, another fire went off and they all dived for cover again.

"What's going on Cleghorn?" Canard yelled over the noise.

"This nut just suddenly started firing at people, there's three dead and eight wounded, all wounded are on their way to the hospital, the only trouble is. . "Cleghorn looked over at the building behind the gun man, "that building is currently holding two billion in gold, it's a treasury and the alarm was triggered just after this guy started having his little spree."

"So the dude's a distraction, we can take him right guys." Nosedive looked at his friends and brother.

"No, it's too dangerous," said Wildwing looking over his shoulder at the gun man, "we have to get past him with out his knowing."

"But. . . " Nosedive tried to protest.

"No." Wildwing looked around and spotted a manhole, he then looked over to the building and noticed another one near the door, "Stay here." before the others could say anything against him he took off at a run to the first manhole, tore off the cover and jumped in, narrowly missing a few stray bullets. Then he used the mask to work out which direction he needed to head to get to the other manhole. 

He pushed open the cover as quietly as the thick metal would allow and thankfully the gunman didn't notice, he took aim with his gauntlet and shot a bola puck tying him up instantly. Once the rest of his companions had caught up he, Canard and Grin took the front exit whilst Duke and Nosedive took the roof. Inside was a mess, there was rubble everywhere which made it easier to find the vault as all they had to do was follow the rubble, the more of it there was the closer they got. Soon they got to what looked like it used to be a vault door, they followed the stairs down a level and it wasn't long before they heard voices. 

"You'd better set those charges right Alex you know what the boss'll do if we don't get this gold to him." Said one of the thieves.

"Yeah," said another, "if we get caught first he'll spring us and then he'll kill us." The second man drew his finger across his throat as the woman setting the charges wiped her brow.

"I'm working on it," she pressed a few buttons and they heard a snap, "stand back gentlemen." They hid behind some crates and the woman went to press a button on a remote in her hand.

"Hold it right there lady and gents," yelled Canard stepping out and aiming his blaster at the three, "you're not going anywhere with that gold." The men raised their hands as both Grin and Wildwing also stepped out guns at the ready, the woman however narrowed her eyes, smiled slightly and pressed the button, the three ducks jumped in the hopes of getting out of the way, but were thrown by the blast. The three robbers made a dash for the hole in the wall that lead into the sewers, Wildwing got unsteadily up onto his feet and, after checking his friends were nothing more than unconscious, he ran after them.

"Ah to hell with this man," Nosedive said when he heard an explosion coming from a few floors down, he took aim at the door Duke was trying to open and blasted the lock, then he and Duke forced their way through. "Come on man they could be hurt." 

"Don't panic kid I'm comin'!" Duke shouted as he ran after the teen. They found Grin and Canard in the basement just coming round, "you two okay?"

"I think so," said Canard rubbing the back of his head, then he looked around and noticed there was a member missing, "where's Wildwing?" Nosedive had also noticed the absence of said brother and was checking under larger pieces of debris incase he was underneath. Duke helped Canard and Grin to their feet and they helped to look, five minutes past and they heard footsteps coming from to sewers, they were slow and uneven so they didn't sound like anyone they knew, so they readied their blasters and waited for the owner to show him/herself. The figure shielded his eyes as he stepped into the light of the room and Nosedive yelled in panic when he saw his brother with blood falling down his arm drenching his clothes.

"Wildwing!" He yelled as he rushed over to help his brother, "you okay man?" Wildwing happily accepted his brother's help and leant on him for support.

"Yeah, it's nothing, lets just get back to the pond," he said first to Dive and then the others, "oh and uh, tell Cleghorn they're all wrapped up in the sewers for him." He grinned at them and let himself be led out of the building by Nosedive. Canard and Duke filled Cleghorn in as Grin got the Migrator and Wildwing got his arm bandaged by a paramedic, Dive hovered over him like a mother hen asking if he was okay every five seconds. The girls were contacted and told what had happened and they all went back to the pond where Tanya could patch Wing up properly. Wildwing spent two nights in the infirmary to make sure that he was okay after the blood he lost and then he was near enough back to normal.

* * *

Two weeks later and it was just before the wedding, Saffron walked into her room after a long day her 'new' white cat trotted past her and jumped onto the bed. 

"There's something here for you Saffron," Mihoshi said when the door closed, "it looks like a present." Saffron looked at the parcel and stared at it, who would give her a present, Dive wasn't the surprise type of guy, he couldn't keep a secret to save his life, and the others, well, "Go on," Mihoshi said impatiently, "open it then!" Saffron reached down and carefully opened the package, it was a dress, the same color as the ones the other bridesmaids were going to wear with one difference, instead of being your pretty ordinary run of the mill dress this was tailor made for a goth, it had chiffon skirt and sleeves that were cut in a way that made them look ripped, the bodice was a corset with the ties at the front, she also found shoes and other things to go with the dress too, along with a letter.

_Dear Saffron,_

_Your part of our family now, so that's why you have to be a bridesmaid, but, I wouldn't want you to be anyone other than yourself. So I went to a shop I knew of and they've made you this dress to wear so that you can go to the wedding as the Thorn Blood you are._

_Hope you Like it:_

_Lizzie x x x._

Saffron smiled and tried on her new clothes and then ran to thank Lizzie.

**Hope you like it, I wrote it when I had a cold so It's not Shakespeare, any way, I hope to put up more soon.**


	12. Chapter 12: Some Parties and a Wedding

_**Family.**_

**Chapter 12: Some Parties and A Wedding.**

Wildwing reluctantly pulled on some of his more party going clothes. Duke and Canard had informed him that he was going to party his last night away as a free duck in style, so they had booked a hotel and had flown to Vegas, then they would fly to the manor the next day. The girls were driving up to the manor house to get there and stay for the evening, what he didn't know was that that Silver and Taisha also had something planned for that evening, Phil had gone along with the girls to take care of Nina and Millie, but he didn't know that yet. Wildwing sighed and thought of the next day, _"This time tomorrow I'll be married to the prettiest human in the world," _he chuckled,_ "man that's corny!"_

"Come on Wing we're gonna be late!" Nosedive yelled from behind the locked door, he didn't know what the others had in store for his brother but he knew it was going to be fun and as he was the best man he had been allowed to go too.

"I'm coming!" Wildwing yelled back jovially, nothing would spoil his mood tonight. He ran his hand through his recently cut hair and walked out of the room to join his brother and then the others.

"Wing," said Duke as the brothers approached, "have we got a night planned out for you!" This was where Wildwing started to feel nervous, both Duke and Canard had strange glints in their eyes. Grin bent down to speak privately in his ear;

"I must point out that this was not my idea my friend but they said you would enjoy it so I have agreed to partake as the coming ceremony is a cause for celebration."

"uh, right. . . sure, okay Grin"

Wildwing was led to a room that was bursting with energy, there was a bar on the right, the music was ear splitting and it was crowded, of course then Wildwing looked towards a stage at the far end of the room that extended out into the crowd who all seemed to be men.

"Gentlemen this establishment proudly presents Lolita!" said a voice over the loud speakers. Wildwing sat down with Grin and Nosedive whilst Canard and Duke went to get some drinks, but not before Wildwing sternly reminding them that he and Nosedive were still under age for alcohol, so they would only have soft drinks. As 'Lolita' walked onto the stage the surrounding audience started to cheer wildly and a fast music track started to play as she started to dance. Wildwing suddenly caught on just as Nosedive did and there were two very different reactions, Wildwing sunk low into his chair going redder by the minute and Nosedive sat forward to try and get a better look at the stripper. Canard and Duke came back with the drinks and Wildwing downed most of it in one go, he had a funny feeling that this wasn't ordinary orange juice, but was too embarrassed to take much notice of it.

"Ah what's wrong Wing, loosen up she's a babe!" yelled Duke over the music, still watching Lolita out of the corner of his eye.

"If Lizzie ever finds out about this she'll kill me, she's probably wrapped up in bed right now. . . "

* * *

  


"**IT'S RAINING MEN, HALLEJULA**!" Screamed the women watching the group of male dancer's clothes become more and more none existent, Taisha, Phoenix, Silver and Lizzie were already drunk and were up on stage with them singing karaoke to the song and as Phoenix was an ex rock star it didn't sound too bad. They were all in fancy dress, it had been Tai's idea, Lizzie was Bat Girl, Tai was 'She Ra Princess of Power', Silver had gone as Cat Woman, Phoenix as Super Girl, Tanya had been persuaded to go as Wonder Woman, Mallory was persuaded to dress as Poison Ivy, all outfits were extremely skimpy, which they had been told was essential for a hen night and no one would care the next morning anyway, of course what they hadn't been told was that Tai had paid one of the staff to film the night with her digital camcorder. Tanya, Mallory and Saff were all dancing on the dance floor and were the only ones in the party not drunk.

* * *

  


Wildwing woke up with a start, suddenly feeling cold and wet and not being able to breath. He opened his eyes and realized he was underwater, when he reached the surface, Duke, Canard and Nosedive were standing by the hotel pool laughing their heads off.

"Thanks guy, real mature," he swam to the side of the pool and pulled himself up, but then had to hold his head as a stabbing pain caused him agony.

"What's the matter kid, can't ya take ya **'orange juice'?**" Wildwing looked up and narrowed his eyes at his still laughing friend, he stood up unsteadily and walked back into the hotel. He managed to miss most of the other guests as it was still pretty early but those who did see the six foot three duck in nothing but his boxers and soaked to the bone either stared in disbelief or waited till he passed and then burst out laughing. Wildwing made it to his hotel room and opted for a nice soak in the on suite bath, he ran the taps and went to get his wash things from his bag. After half an hour relaxing in the tub he got out, but still felt rough so he took some aspirin. Then he got all of his stuff together for later that day and got dressed, he'd put his tux on in the airowing. "Hey Wing, you comin' down for breakfast or what?" Wildwing looked at the clock, which read eight fifteen, _"man I still feel rough and the wedding's in just over six hours. . Maybe some breakfast will make me feel better."_ So he went to join his friends.

* * *

  


Mallory, Tanya, Saffron and the kids had been up since dawn and were trying to raise their other companions. Tanya was trying to gently raise Lizzie who just wanted to go back to sleep, Mallory was physically trying to drag Tai out of bed and the kids were jumping up and down on Phoe's bed which seemed to be the best play. The three late risers trudged down the stairs and ate the prepared breakfast then all went to have a shower to wake themselves up. Then it began: First it was the the hairdresser who came and styled each and every one of the girls hair including the kids who would be flower girls, this of course meant that the dresses had to be put on early in the day so that they could all get them on over the hair do's, Millie for once did not kick and scream at the suggestion of her wearing an actual dress and promised her mother she would be good. Then came the make up artist who did each individual girl slightly different to match their complexion, or feather tone. The one slight problem with this was that he left his make up kit where he couldn't see it all of the time so he would later find that it had shrunk and Millie's had grown some what. Then they had to have lunch, Tai and Lizzie had been given lipstick to touch up their look. 

Soon there was only half an hour to go and they heard the approach of the airowing. Lizzie was rushed away from the window and taken to her room until Wildwing was safely out of the way and unable to see her before the ceremony. Nosedive came up before hand to say hi to the girls and 'speak' to Saffron in private.

"Oh man, Liz you look gorgeous!" Nosedive stood, beak wide open looking at his soon to be sister in law, then he spotted Saffron and if possible his beak grew even wider, "Saff, you, I mean, you're . . ."

"Thank you," Saffron answered blushing as she lead him out of the room and around the corner where they couldn't be seen, "Lizzie bought it for me, I . . . " she stopped when she saw the look on Dive's face and felt her heart quicken it's pace, he leant down towards her and they kissed. His arms wrapped around her and hers around him and they stood there enjoying the moment.

"Nosedive, get down here now!" yelled Canard, "you're the best man, you've got to give Wing Lizzie's ring you idiot!" Nosedive yelped and Saffron laughed as he ran full pelt down the stairs to the marquis outside.

The girls all gathered outside the marquis and waited as Nina and Millie walked slowly along the aisle scattering red rose petals. Lizzie could feel her heart flutter, Wildwing wasn't fairing any better. The music started and Phil began to lead his daughter towards her future husband, the rest of the girls following behind concentrating on keeping in step.

* * *

  


**Elsewhere:**

Draganus paced his throne room in the raptor, he knew Wildwing was marrying the human girl today, it had been in all of the paper's, the news, everywhere, but where the ceremony was actually being held was a mystery. This was what troubled him, he knew that if he could find out the whereabouts of the wedding soon he would be able to take the ducks by surprise, that way he would take Nosedive and Lizzie as hostages and make them suffer, if only to see Wildwing's face when he presents his loved ones close to death. Then he relished in the thought of finishing them off with Wildwing watching on. He knew it would break him, that Wildwing's world would shatter into tiny pieces the moment Nosedive and Lizzie died. But he wouldn't kill him then, no he would take him and the rest of the ducks as slaves and let them watch as he took over earth and returned to Puckworld to reclaim it. Then he would make the team watch as he forced their leader into servitude. He laughed at the thought, he would make Wildwing's life a living hell, that he swore, if only he could find out where the wedding was being held.

"Uh, boss?" The chameleon asked in a tiny voice.

"What is it," Draganus bellowed, "and it had better be good news!"

"Well it might be and it might not be," he winced for a blow to the head that never came, Draganus was simply listening for a change, "see I saw this human, reading some tabloid paper and it's got the five most likely places for Wildwing and his girl to get married, the humans are all eager to find out too, well they've sent news crews to each of the places and there's one crew that supposed to have found them, they're filming the place in secret in case the ducks throw them off the premises, but uh, it's some big house out in the country. But no one knows whether to believe them or not" Draganus started chuckling and then laughing.

"Chameleon, I want you, Siege and Wraith to take a few hunter drones to where that film crew is, if it is their wedding then I want you to bring me his bride and his brother, do you understand?" the chameleon nodded, "Make sure you wait until after the ceremony, it will be all the more painful for Wildwing if he's already married her, you can injure but not kill."

* * *

  


"Good luck buddy." Canard whispered.

"Huh?" Wildwing was in a world of his own.

"I was just saying good luck." Canard repeated himself, smiling.

"Yeah bro," Nosedive placed one hand on Wing's shoulder, "we gotta say it now cause in a few seconds you're gonna be speechless man." Wildwing raised an eyebrow but turned around as he heard the music start, and as Nosedive had predicted he was speechless. In his opinion she looked like an angel walking down the aisle, he gulped and heard a faint snicker from Duke, Canard and Nosedive. Phil was beaming and for once didn't have his cell phone anywhere in sight, he handed Lizzie over to Wildwing and took his place beside the men. To Wildwing the ceremony was a complete blur, he knew he was saying what had to be said but his mind didn't register that he'd actually said it, and then it came to the most important part.

"Do you Wildwing Flashblade take Elizabeth Stone as your lawful wedded wife?" Wildwing smiled and turned to Lizzie.

"I do."

"And do you Elizabeth Stone take Wildwing Flashblade to be your lawful wedded husband?"

"I do." she said with a faint blush across her cheeks.

"Now please exchange the rings." the pastor looked over to Nosedive who grabbed his ring out of his pocket and then at Taisha who took the ring she kept and they gave them to Lizzie and Wildwing.

"With this ring I thee wed." Wildwing said as if in a dream and he slipped the perfectly fitting ring onto Lizzie's slender finger.

"With this ring I thee wed." Lizzie smile as she slipped Wildwing's ring on his finger.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, You may now kiss the bride." The pastor said to Wildwing smiling. And they did, Nosedive, Taisha, Canard and the kids cheered the loudest as the couple embraced. The party of friends went inside to sign the wedding certificate and to allow the manor staff to prepare the gardens for the reception. 

**To be continued, please review!**


	13. Chapter 13: Ending

_**Family.**_

**Chapter 13: Ending.**

Lizzie held on to her new husbands arm as the one and only photographer took pictures of them in various poses and then stepped aside as he took some of the guests. Nosedive was getting closer and closer to Saffy as the day wore on an the rest of the gang were having a great time, especially when it came to meeting some of Lizzie's relatives. Canard and Silver laughed at the small boy playing kiss chase with Millie and Nina and Duke was chatting up a very elegant looking woman in her forties who was one of Lizzie's cousins. The ducks present to their leader and his new bride was a trip to Australia where they would spend some time in Sydney and then two months in the outback where the two of them could really relax. The only trouble was The Australian authorities had refused to allow the airowing in its airspace so the newly weds had to catch a commercial flight over there which would take twice as long and meant them leaving before the party. Canard had been furious as they'd only got back to them a few days before the wedding with the refusal which meant the only flight going on the wedding day or even close was at ten PM the evening of the wedding. 

The party was started and after the speeches Lizzie and Wildwing prepared to leave the others cheering them on as they exited the building and walked over to a limo. 

"Don't do anything I wouldn't buddy!" Canard yelled.

"Oh and what don't you do big boy?" Silver said suggestively as she pressed her ass against his crotch, she smiled as she felt him stiffen and he went scarlet. Wildwing shook his head and turned back to the limo to let his 'blushing bride' into the car as he saw a laser target he yelled and pushed her out of the way just in time to hear the shot fly past his head. Lizzie screamed and the other ducks quick changed into their battle gear. 

"Wing!" Canard ran up to them being covered by the others.

"You okay bro, Liz?" Dive's concerned face appeared beside Lizzie.

"This is the point where I wish the com fitted under my suit," Wildwing started and then cut Dive off before he said anything, "and no I was not going to let Tanya at it to make it change using the tie!" Lizzie smiled at the unusually un-safety conscious way he'd said that, he'd wanted this to be perfect too, just like she had, normality had been what they'd wanted from the start.

"You two had better get inside where it's safe, we can take it from here," Wildwing nodded wanting nothing more than to get Lizzie out of harm's way, he did not need her getting hurt again, or worse. 

Once in the building they led Millie, Phoenix, Nina and the other guests to the back of the building away from where the fire fight was taking place, Cleghorn appeared beside them holding his gun out just in case _"trust him to bring a gun to a wedding," _thought Wildwing, _"I'm surprised he accepted our invitation at all and I'm pretty sure he'll enjoy shouting at us about this later."_ Once the guests were a safe distance away Cleghorn and Wildwing retraced their steps to see how the others were doing, Lizzie silently followed them. They peered through one of the windows to see that the others were winning.

Draganus watched as once again his henchmen were botching up a flawless plan and smoke billowed out of his nostrils. Then he saw an opening that he couldn't pass up, staring through one of the windows was Wildwing, unarmed and most importantly un-armored. He smiled as a new plan popped into his evil head and activated his teleporter.

Back at the fight Nosedive was desperately looking to see where Saffron had disappeared to, the last thing he knew was she was taking on Wraith. He saw a fire ball fly pass and headed in the direction it had come from to find Saffy dueling Wraith with her magick. Mihoshi watched from the sidelines.

"Aren't you gonna do something or are you gonna just stand and watch." He shouted at her as he ran up to her and then past, but she stopped him.

"This is her fight, what she was meant to do and born for, why I kept her alive." Mihosi looked down at the ground, "she's asked me to protect you now and I said I would Nosedive." Nosedive seemed confused but only for a few seconds and when he realized what the demoness meant he tried to get to his friend and love. But he was stopped again and a spell was cast. He fell to the floor, his head landing on the soft grass, he felt Mihoshi pull him onto her knees and he felt himself weep as he watched his best friend fight. He was going to watch her die, again. And just like the last time there was nothing he could do about it. The saurian mage and the Puckworld witch paused and each started to mutter a spell and he saw each opponents power build up into a large ball above each head, both fired at the same time. He hoped in vain that the two magick balls would cancel each other out but such was the hatred of the fighters for each other that each ball was designed to slip through the other's magick and both were hit and thrown back. It was only then that Mihoshi lifted the spell she'd cast on him. He got up and rushed to Saffy's side, she was still breathing and semi-conscious.

"Saff?" He asked timidly, as he brushed the hair out of her face and cradled her dying body.

"Shh," a slender finger rose up and stopped him from saying anything, "Dive I'm sorry, I hoped it wouldn't come to this but it has, I have to go now so you take care of yourself," she heaved a sigh as Wraiths magick started to ebb away at her soul, "I love you Nosedive and I swear, no matter what happens I will always be with you, some how. Don't forget me Dive and please. . ." her voice started to grow faint and her body with it, "please don't linger on this, never change Dive the who you are, that's why we all love you. . . . " She faded away, leaving nothing left, tears streamed down his face and when Mihoshi came to comfort him he welcomed it crying into her shoulder as the rest of the battle still raged just around the corner.

Draganus couldn't believe his luck when he teleported into the building and found himself behind Lizzie, he grabbed her and threw her at the police chief knocking both out on the wall. Wildwing spun around to face the attacker and his stomach dropped when he saw who it was.

"I was going to use one of your dear family to lure your team but I know by now that you are what keeps them together and without you I will make short work of your friends. Of course your dear family will become my slaves, after all there are worse things than death boy." A shiver went down Wildwing's spine as he watched his enemy eye up Lizzie with a lustful glare, "Besides, when I am ruler of both this world and Puckworld I will need a queen to bare me heirs. Wildwing seethed and felt the blood rising, his fists shook and he was ready to attack despite not having any way of winning without his armor or weapons. Wildwing charged blindly at his opponent, Draganus waited for the last possible second before jumping out of the way, somersaulting in the air and landing behind the duck. Draganus lifted his right arm and slashed through the suit Wildwing was wearing savoring the feel of tearing flesh and the wet blood pouring onto his fingers. He swung again and again, but stopped after the third not wanting to kill him like that, it was too easy and not nearly as satisfying as killing him slowly. Instead he spun the faltering duck around and pushed him against the wall and lifted Wildwing up by the neck and pressed firmly, but not so much that he would instantly break Wing's neck and kill him. 

Lizzie groaned in her resting place, gingerly got to her feet and gasped at what she saw. Her new husband was being choked to death by Draganus and everyone that could and would help her was outside trying to stop the other saurians getting in. She could feel the panic set in and knew a panic wasn't far away the likes of which she hadn't had since she was a child. Lizzie started toward the two and felt her foot kick something hard, she looked down and there was Cleghorn's gun, she reached down and picked it up the noise from outside had stopped and she considered just calling for help but Wildwing's hands which had been holding onto Draganus' arms slipped and fell and he passed out. She flipped the safety off and aimed at a fatal spot Silver had once told her about and as the other ducks burst through the door she fired. 

Draganus' eyes widened and then glazed over as he fell to the ground dead, she watched as Wildwing fell as if in slow motion to the floor and she froze. Lizzie shook as Canard gently took the gun from her and placed an arm around her shoulders and tried to block Wildwing's bloody form, tears threatening to fall fearing the worst for his friend. Tanya raced over to her leader and checked his vitals, it took a while but she found a pulse. An ambulance was called and they all thought it best to send Wildwing to the nearest hospital then to transport him in the airowing as it would take too long.

* * *

Wildwing's vision swam as he woke up, _"Where am I, am I dead?" _He thought as he saw the white walls, then he looked to his side and saw Lizzie sitting at his bedside, still, in her wedding dress looking down at her hands, he couldn't for the life of him remember getting hurt or why they weren't on the way to Australia right now. 

"Baby?" He was surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded and how much his throat hurt, "What happened?" Lizzie looked up surprised then relived.

"You don't remember?" she asked not really wanting to go through it again, he shook his head no, "Draganus' goons attacked us at the wedding, we went inside, but Draganus teleported in and grabbed me. Then he threw me at Cleghorn and both of us were knocked out cold, when I woke up he was choking you and you were covered in blood. So I . . . I. . ."

"She took Cleghorn's gun and killed Draganus to protect you." Canard finished for her, Wildwing looked shocked and turned his gaze over to his wife, _"she killed him! And it looks like she didn't exactly enjoy doing it."_ he noted as he saw tears welling up and she started to hug herself. Canard looked concerned and almost went over, but Wildwing lifted his arm and brushed the tears out of her eyes and she lunged for him crying into his chest.

"Wing I killed some one, I've never so much as killed a spider before, I'm just like he was!" Her voice was muffled but both men still heard perfectly and were taken aback.

"Lizz, you're in no way like him!" Canard said angry that she could even think such a thing.

"Baby, you saved my life, one of us would have done it eventually if we'd needed to we just didn't expect it to be you." Wildwing tightened his hold, "please don't think like that, your my Lizzie and you are not like him, besides," he lifted her face to look into her eyes, "I really would tell you if you got that ugly, honest!" Lizzie smile in spite of herself and felt a little better that Wildwing wasn't ashamed of her. Wildwing looked over to Canard, "Is the rest of the team okay?" Canard looked down at his feet when asked this question, he'd dreaded it ever since they'd figured out what had happened to Saffy and why Nosedive was in some kind of trance, not responding to anyone or anything, "what is it? Who's hurt?" Wildwing tried to get up but quickly gave up when the slash marks caused him intense pain.

"No one's hurt, as such, but. . ."

"But what Canard?!" Wildwing was loosing his patience and he wasn't in the best of moods in the first place.

"It's Saffy, she took on Wraith and won too, but she died as well," Canard looked over his should in the direction of the family room, "we found Nosedive curled up not far from the grounds passed out, Tanya thinks it might have been to much for his mind to come to terms with cause he's not saying anything, he's just staring off into space." 

"Is Phoenix with him?" Canard nodded and Wildwing sighed, Dive had stayed bright and cheerful for too long and he knew that someday after all the crap that had happened to him he might snap and Nosedive would be lost perhaps forever, it looked like that day may have come. But that was just something he had to deal with, after all that was what family was for.

"Guys!" Silver yelled as she raced into the room, "Nosedive's gone, we can't find him anywhere!"

* * *

Nosedive disappeared without a trace along with Saffron's cat Mihoshi, the only clue was that he'd taken a duck cycle and that he'd cleared out his bank account on the same day that he'd gone. Despite their best efforts Nosedive wasn't found and the Mighty Duck's time was spent playing hockey around following up sittings of him throughout America.

**So I finally finished it, am I mean or what, I'm not sure if I'll do a follow up on what happened to Dive or not but if I do it will include some characters from the Angel chronicles that I felt I didn't use enough and want to use again, but they will have slightly different lives** **to the ones in the angel chronicles, honest. Anywho, please review, toodles, Angel!**


End file.
